Biden's comments on health care announcement

Vice President Joe Biden made an announcement today on a partnership with America’s hospital system. (See earlier story: Biden making health care announcement tomorrow). According to the Associated Press, (AP) “the nation’s hospitals will give up $155 billion in future Medicare and Medicaid payments to help defray the cost of President Barack Obama’s health care plan.”

Around $50 billion would come from reducing payments to hospitals received for providing health care to those without insurance or below the poverty level. Currently, Medicare or Medicaid covers this.  AP says “the Medicaid cuts would be apportioned by state, as 10 percent annual reductions beginning around 2015.”

Reductions in Medicare payments to hosptials would save another $100 billion.

However, there’s plenty of wheeling and dealing going on–the hospital industry requested that if the health plan includes a public health insurance plan, that “it would reimburse hospitals at above the rates Medicare and Medicaid pay, which hospitals have long complained are insufficient,” said AP.

Read Biden’s initial comments below: (More coming as updated)

“Good morning, folks.  How are you?  I want to thank you all — I apologize for being late.  I was at a meeting with Senator Baucus and Senator Reid, and Senator Baucus was on his way over here with me for this announcement and he — there was a vote called in the Senate.  So, again, I apologize to our participants here.

I want to thank everyone for joining me here today.  And as you know, we have with us today a constellation of people who have been able to put together a great, great proposal with Senator Baucus and the President:  Richard Bracken, the president and CEO of the Hospital Corporation of America; Wayne Smith, President and CEO of Community Health Systems; Sister Carol Keenan who — I told her that I was a good kid in school.  (Laughter.)  And she is the CEO of Catholic Health Association of the United States.  And Richard Umbdenstock — am I pronouncing it correctly, Richard?  Rich, actually — and president and CEO of the American Hospital Association.

I was going to introduce Max Baucus, but you got to go up to the Hill and see him — he’s voting now.  And obviously, our Secretary — Secretary Sebelius.

Look, I want to warmly welcome the hospital CEOs here with us today.  You know, every day you see firsthand the impact the skyrocketing health care costs have had on American families.  And today, they’ve come together to do something about those health care costs.

Folks, reform is coming.  It is on track; it is coming.  We have tried for decades — for decades — to fix a broken system, and we have never, in my entire tenure in public life, been this close.  We have never been as close as we are today, and things remain on track.

We have these hospitals working with us, and we have the pharmaceutical industry working with us; we have doctors and nurses and health care providers with us; we have the American public behind us.  And everyone sees that we need change.  And in my view, we’re going to get that change, and we’re going to get it this year.

The poet Virgil said, the greatest wealth is health.  Well, we’re here today to make our health care system healthy again.  A strong commitment from these hospitals represented here and others will be a big part of making that happen.

All around the country, the people who have health insurance still are struggling to pay their bills because they are underinsured or they’re out-of-pocket expenses are rising so rapidly they have trouble keeping up.  And those who don’t have insurance because they’ve lost their jobs or have been denied coverage because someone in their family has a preexisting condition are throwing themselves at the mercy of the people who represent the major hospitals in this — in the United States of America today. And as a result, our hospitals are cracking under the weight of providing quality health care for Americans who lack insurance.

The hospital industry knows, and the people with me here today know, and the President knows, that the status quo is simply unacceptable.  Let me say that again — the status quo is simply unacceptable.  Rising costs are crushing us.  They’re crushing families, crushing businesses, crushing state budgets — and they are crushing the health care industry itself.

Hospitals have acknowledged that significant health care savings can be achieved by improving efficiencies, realigning incentives to emphasize quality care instead of quantity of procedures.  And in the last several weeks, they’ve been working with Chairman Baucus and are coming forward with a proposal that produces real savings in federal health care spending — savings that will be applied toward the President’s firm goal — firm goal of enacting health care reform that is deficit-neutral — health care reform that is deficit-neutral.

As part of this agreement, hospitals are committing to contributing $155 billion — $155 billion — in Medicare and Medicaid savings over the 10 years to cover health care cost reform — over the next 10 years.  These reductions will be achieved through a combination of delivery system reforms, additional reductions in hospital — and additional reductions in the hospital’s annual inflationary updates.  All of these savings are based on the policies the administration proposed in its budget to fund health care reform.

As our system becomes more efficient — thanks to innovation, technology and electronic records — we’ll show increases — we’ll slow, I should say, increases in Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals.  As more people are insured, hospitals will bear less of the financial burden of caring for the uninsured and the underinsured, and we’ll reduce payments to cover those costs, in tandem with that reduction.

Today’s announcement I believe represents the essential role hospitals play in making reform a reality.  And a reality it will be.  We must enact this reform this year.  We must — and we will — enact reform by the end of August.  And we can’t wait.  I know that; the leaders that are up here know that; the President knows that; my colleagues who I just spoke to know that; and the entire Congress knows it.  And I look forward to hearing how their hospitals are going to be helping and bringing about this reform. That’s why they’re here today.

So I thank you again for being here.  I thank the press for being here, and our colleagues.  And I’d like now to introduce Sister Keenan — or as we say, “Yester, it’s your podium.”  (Laughter.)”

BACKGROUND ON TODAY’S HEALTH CARE ANNOUNCEMENT-FROM WHITE HOUSE

●    As families, businesses and governments struggle with the increasing burden of health care costs, hospital leaders are joining with the Administration to say the status quo is no longer sustainable.   Like others in the health care industry, hospitals have seen firsthand that Americans with  health insurance are struggling to pay their health care bills because they are under-insured and  their out of pocket expenses are rising.   Often those without insurance – because they have lost a job or someone in their family suffers from a pre-existing condition – are forced to throw themselves on the mercy of America’s hospitals.  Hospitals  absorb some of the cost of caring for Americans without insurance – while the remainder is passed on to taxpayers or Americans with insurance.   The hospital industry agrees with the President that the time to enact health reform that lowers costs and assures quality and affordable coverage for all Americans is now.  It cannot wait.

● Last month, the hospital industry acknowledged that significant health care savings can be achieved by improving efficiencies and realigning incentives to emphasize quality of care instead of quantity of procedures.   Now they have  worked with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to develop proposals that will produce $155 billion of savings in  federal health care spending over the next 10 years—savings that will be used to finance health care reform, in keeping with the President’s firm goal of enacting legislation that that is deficit neutral.

● As part of this agreement, hospitals have committed to support policies that will help pay for health reform and reduce overall costs to the Medicare program. These reductions will be achieved through a combination of payment reforms, including additional reductions in hospital’s annual inflationary updates.  They will be more than offset as health reform takes hold and hospitals bear less of the financial burden of caring for the uninsured or underinsured.

●  In addition, in the area of delivery system reform, hospitals are reaffirming their long-standing commitment to improve quality and reduce costs in the health care system by supporting initiatives such as value-based purchasing;  testing ways to better integrate care; and taking steps to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions.

● The savings the industry has agreed to achieve are consistent with the policy goals set forth by the President and the Congress to expand coverage, reduce health care costs and transform the health care delivery system.

Related posts:

1. Biden making health care announcement Wednesday
2. Attorney general prepares lawsuit while Obama, Klein extol historic health care bill passed by Congress

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Posted by admin on Jul 8 2009. Filed under Health, National politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry