[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 7, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H608-H612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE STATE OF HEALTH CARE: REPUBLICAN EFFORTS FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dent). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey)
will control the remainder of the hour.
Mr. GINGREY. Dr. Murphy, thank you so much for bringing that
expertise in regard to health IT and health care quality. In fact, I
wanted to point out, Mr. Speaker, and my colleagues one of the posters
in regard to this.
The Rand study that Dr. Murphy mentioned, a potential savings of $162
billion annually by going to that system, and also at least 90,000
lives, and possibly more. I wanted to close out that portion before I
call on some of my other colleagues to discuss other pertinent issues.
We do have legislation introduced from the Republican Conference to
incentivize physicians, particularly small group physicians through our
Tax Code, in the 179 section of the Code, to let them rapidly
depreciate indeed up to $250,000. We do this for businessmen and women
currently up to $100,000, but it is so critically important, this cost
savings that I point out, that we want to make sure these physicians
can afford to do this, because we need every one of them to participate
in health IT.
At this point, the next issue that we wanted to talk about, and the
gentlewoman from Florida, my colleague, and classmate, Ms. Ginny Brown-
Waite, a member of Financial Services, Homeland Security, Veterans'
Affairs, a Member of the Health Care Public Affairs Team, as most of us
are; in addition to that she leads the Women's Issue Team of the
Republican Caucus. She wears many hats.
But tonight the gentlewoman is going to talk about long-term care.
And I hope she will include a little bit about the issue of health
savings accounts and how they can be rolled into that. I think the
President may have mentioned that a little bit.
At this point I gladly yield to my colleague from Florida (Ms. Ginny
Brown-Waite).
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the fact
that Mr. Gingrey is holding these to help inform people of exactly what
Congress is doing on the issue of health care. I am sure when every
Member here goes back into their district, people ask them about health
care.
In my district, of course, the issue is always not only just health
care for seniors, but also veterans. And Dr. Murphy was absolutely
correct that the VA was the first entity to begin computerizing their
records, which is the reason why a veteran can go from New York at a VA
facility down to one in Florida, and virtually with a few key strokes,
they pull up his or her record. That is a good way to make sure that we
have continuity of care.
In Florida, of course, we have many, many nursing homes. People move
to Florida, and as they age in Florida, the nursing home industry is a
very, very vital part of our economy. When I was a State senator, I
worked long and hard on nursing home issues. We did nursing home
reform.
And one of the reasons that we did nursing home reform was because we
wanted to increase the staffing and make sure that nursing homes
provided the kind of quality care that we all want for our seniors who
are in nursing homes. But, you know, one of the issues clearly is the
cost not just for those living in a nursing home, but also for younger
families who have got to care for older parents or loved ones, very
often termed the sandwich generation.
You know, long-term care costs can be very, very stifling. And I
agree about having them be able to roll into a medical savings account.
It is certainly a very important component of what we are trying to do
long term.
You know, you do not fix health care forever. The need for health
care reform continues as technology improves, as we all age, and also
as we take into consideration all of the new pharmaceutical products
that are out there that prevent people from going into hospitals, and,
many times, nursing homes.
You know, that sandwich generation I was just speaking about, they
are the ones who are very often helping to care for their parents. You
know, nursing home costs can be upwards of $60,000 if a person does not
have insurance. And home health care costs can sometimes reach $20,000
a year.
When we look at the demographics, those who are 85 years of age or
older are the most likely candidates for long-term care service. But
age is not the only indicator. Actually people of any age with limited
self-care or mobility issues are candidates as well.
For the average person over age 50, home health care can cost over
$5,800 a year. Even families who have long-term care insurance are
facing hefty costs. Kind of base plan premiums run between $564 a year
for a 50-year-old, for example, to $5,300 a year for someone who is 79.
When families can no longer cover these costs, Medicaid has to pick
up the tab for those who do not have long-term care insurance. And when
we look at the spending in Medicaid, one-third
[[Page H609]]
nationwide of all Medicaid spending goes toward long-term care.
Moreover, two-thirds of these funds are used for institutional care,
even though consumers prefer to remain in their own homes and
communities. I am sure, Dr. Gingrey, that in your State as well as in
my State, that they have applied for waivers, kind of all efforts
possible to keep people in their own homes.
People prefer to be in their own homes, but there are times when they
do need to be in long-term care. One of the bills that I recently
introduced that I know many of my colleagues are on, is the Qualified
Long-Term Care Fairness Act. We want to encourage people to participate
in long-term care insurance.
This bill provides the same tax deduction available to those who
itemize as those who do not. Currently only people who itemize on their
income tax can take off the cost of long-term care insurance. This was
obviously overlooked when they passed the bill, in that they only allow
people who itemize.
We want to make sure that this tax deduction may be used for long-
term care insurance premiums, activities of daily living, diagnostic,
preventative or rehabilitation services, and certainly other services
prescribed by a licensed health care practitioner.
My bill also, by the way, covers home health care expenses. By taking
out a policy, it really and truly helps the family so very much. We
want to make sure that this additional tax deduction can be claimed by
people who take that extra care to be sure that if they need nursing
home care that they have the insurance to cover it.
You know, Mr. Speaker, in 2001, spending for long-term care services
for persons of all ages represented 12.2 percent of all personal health
care spending. This was almost $152 billion of $1.24 trillion spent for
health care.
Congress should encourage all Americans to purchase long-term care
insurance. And certainly this is but one way that we can encourage our
constituents to spend that money for a long-term care policy.
If I may take a moment just of personal privilege to tell a story
about a very dear gentleman that everyone thought he was my dad; he was
not. He had three daughters and he cared about those daughters.
Because he lived in the same community that I did, and because we
were very close, people just thought that Arne was my father. Well, let
me tell you, Arne was a very, very thoughtful father, because he took
out long-term care insurance.
He developed Alzheimer's, and needed to be in a long-term care
facility. His wife had passed on and the progression was very, very
fast. Arne passed away last year, but I can just tell the Members in
the Chamber tonight and those who may be watching in the audience, that
Arne's children truly appreciated the fact that he took out that long-
term care insurance. Because that way, the insurance paid for all of
the time that he had to spend in the nursing home. And he was able to
preserve his life's savings to leave to his children, which is really
what he wanted. And he also wanted to make sure that he was not a
burden on the taxpayers.
I would ask as many people as possible to consider that kind of
insurance to make sure that they are cared for and that their children
or whoever they want to leave the rest of their savings to, that they
are also provided for. I think it is an excellent way to do it.
Mr. GINGREY. If the gentlewoman would yield for a second. This is
such an important item, long-term care, and the anecdotal case that you
just presented to us is touching and very personal, but very real and
very practical, as you point out.
And we are going to talk a little bit later about, and I point out on
this chart, health savings accounts; but I think the gentlewoman would
agree that the opportunity to utilize money out of a health savings
account to purchase at some point, maybe not when you are 35 years old
and you just had the plan and you are building it up for a couple of
years, but as you mentioned, I think you said in your fifties, it
probably is certainly time to start saying not only do I pay for an
annual physical, and maybe a mammogram or colonoscopy out of my health
savings account, but maybe I need to look very closely at purchasing
long-term care insurance to protect my assets, Mr. Speaker, so that
they are not all used up, as I or anybody else who suffers from some
debilitating illness that lasts for a long time, in a nursing home,
they have no insurance, they have exhausted all of their assets.
Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentlewoman from Florida, too, in thinking
outside of the box. I think that is part of why we as Members of the
Republican Conference as a health care team, want to bring to our
colleagues on a regular basis that we are thinking of ways to get the
job done.
We are not just sitting back and accepting the same old, same old.
And your bill, and I was not aware of the specifics of it, but that
allowance for someone who does not itemize to actually get a deduction
for the purchase of long-term care insurance I think is a great idea.
I commend the gentlewoman for that.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I commend the
gentleman. And certainly the use of any funds from a health savings
account for this purpose accomplishes the same thing. It gives people a
tax incentive to save, to also save and preserve their assets for the
future.
And, you know, I recently, this past weekend, ran into a young man
who was all of 55 years old. He was injured, and spent some time in a
rehab center. And, you know, he said to himself, you know, he did not
have insurance. When he told me the cost of that rehabilitation, it was
astronomical.
So, you know, we all want to believe that we are going to be as
healthy tomorrow as we are today. But, that is not always the case. And
I remember when I reviewed the policy with Arne, because I was a little
skeptical, he was 75 when he first started looking at it, and I was
amazed what it did cover and how reasonable the cost was. And, you
know, I looked on every line, looking for a loophole. And it ended up
being something that I did recommend to him, never realizing that a few
years later he would need to have this.
So I commend the gentleman for promoting the health savings accounts
and any other way that we can help seniors to better prepare for their
future.
{time} 2045
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for bringing us
this information on long-term care.
At this time, we have an opportunity to hear another issue discussed
by my colleague on the Rules Committee, the gentlewoman from West
Virginia, Representative Shelly Moore Capito. And Representative Capito
is going to talk tonight about something that, and she knows the
numbers, she has been here a little longer than I have in regard to how
many times we have addressed this issue of tort reform, of trying to
level the playing field. Not take away anybody's rights to a redress of
grievances if somebody has injured them by practicing medicine below
the standard of care. That could be the provider of the care, it could
be the physician, or the hospital.
In any regard, at this point I would like to turn the program over to
Representative Capito and have her talk to us about the issue of
medical liability reform.
Mrs. CAPITO. I thank my colleague from the Rules Committee, not only
for talking about issues that are important to us but his service on
the Rules Committee as well. And also the fact that we are taking this
time to talk about an issue that is probably the most-talked about
issue in my district and that is health care in a general sense, but in
a broader sense health care for our future.
I come from the State of West Virginia, and I think this is a great
topic for somebody from West Virginia to speak on. We have passed out
of the House medical liability reform I think in excess of seven times
and I have lost count. I do not know exactly. But I would like to talk
a little bit about what happened in the State of West Virginia and how
that legislature there and the Governor there joined together to answer
a desperate cry from a lot of West Virginians.
In the summer of, I think it was, 2002, the only trauma center in the
largest metropolitan area of our State, CAMC
[[Page H610]]
Trauma Center, closed because they were unable to staff the trauma
center because people of the specialty and the hospital were having
difficulty meeting the high cost of medical liability insurance. They
could not get it. That traumatized our area. We live in a rural State;
but this area, Charleston, was the magnet for all of southern West
Virginia and eastern and western sides to come in case of a high-level
trauma.
During this time, a young boy of 4 or 5 years old got a penny stuck
in his throat, and he lived about 10 minutes away from the trauma
center, but the trauma center was not there. It was not open. So his
parents, along with their physician, had to take him to Cincinnati,
Ohio, to have this extracted from his windpipe. It had a happy ending.
He was fine, but if they had not had to take that amount of time to go
to Cincinnati to have the work performed, I do not know what would have
happened to this young boy.
Throughout 2002, I met more constituents who were telling me that
their doctors, even though they were not old retirement-age doctors,
middle age, in their fifties, in the peak of their profession, were
moving. They were moving to other States. They were retiring out of the
practice of medicine and into administration because they absolutely
could not afford to continue practice. We were losing our specialty
physicians. I know there is a problem nationwide with neurosurgeons,
certainly orthopedists, OB-GYNs are one of the highest problem areas,
and it was just cascading across our State.
We are known in our State as being one of the best places for trial
lawyers to set up shop. We are very, what do I want to say, generous
and we have a very good litigious society.
Mr. GINGREY. We like to use the expression in those situations: ``it
is easier to sue your doctor than it is to see your doctor.''
Mrs. CAPITO. Right and we were reaching that point in West Virginia.
We had our doctors leaving.
Another thing, I spent Sunday night with a group of physicians here
in Washington, D.C., and one of the things they told me repeatedly, no
matter what State they were practicing in, is that more and more they
have got to practice defensive medicine. Are you going to do the MRI,
Doctor?
And even though they do not think it is called for, it is not
medically necessary, they go ahead and do it because if they do not do
it, there is that small fraction of a chance that something might have
shown up or that they could come back and be sued because they did not
proceed with a procedure that they did not feel was medically
necessary.
And what happens when you practice defensive medicine? The cost goes
up and up and up. And this was happening in West Virginia. Again, our
large medical centers, we could not recruit our doctors. We would have
residencies throughout our State and as soon as the physicians were
trained, educated, and ready to practice, they would leave the State.
And this was really very difficult because the word was out across the
Nation: West Virginia, if you want to practice medicine, do not go to
West Virginia.
So we had all of this coupled with just the out-of-control lawyer
compensation that this breeds, this medical liability breeds.
So we had this kind of situation in West Virginia and what happened?
It was not the doctors. It was not the hospitals. It was not the health
professionals. It was the everyday citizen in West Virginia coming to
policy-makers, coming to their State legislators, coming to their
Governor, coming to their Congresspeople and saying, you have got to do
something. You have got to pass something. And by golly, in the State
of West Virginia they have passed one of the leading, cutting-edge
medical liability bills that exists now in any States in the Union.
And what has happened? Confidence is back in the health professions,
more specialties are being recruited into our State. And just today I
had a young man in my office who was just finishing his residency at
Lexington, Kentucky. He said, I am coming home to West Virginia because
that is where I want to raise my family and practice medicine.
So medical liability does work. It does go to providing higher-
quality care, refreshing your physician and health profession supply.
It does go to bringing about an era of confidence that good-quality
health care is going to be there for you. And so I would say in terms
of, I know Dr. Gingrey has introduced the HEALTH Act again, and we are
hoping that we will pass it out of the House of Representatives again,
we will do that because we know it is important. But more and more what
is happening in West Virginia is happening in other States across the
Nation. And they are hearing from their everyday citizens, their folks
who want to see their doctor when they want to see them, the doctor
they have seen their whole life. And this is an extremely important
issue to have before the American public.
The problem has been we have passed it here, and we have not heard
anything more about it. It had faded out there across the Hall. I think
the stronger the voices are at the local level, just like they were in
West Virginia where we did not think it could ever be done, the
stronger those voices are, the more optimism we can have, we can meet
the demands of a good and solid medical liability reform bill.
I want to join with my colleagues here on the Health Affairs Team who
think it is something we need to talk about quite a bit.
If I could take just 2 more minutes here to talk about another health
issue that is extremely important to me, and that is the prescription
drug bill for seniors. It is something I worked on, and it is probably
the number one issue as I have moved across the State over the last 5
years.
I was sitting in a dinner the other night after reading all the
political rhetoric about the prescription drug bill and how it does not
serve people, and actually one of my colleagues from the other side of
the aisle in my own State called it a national disaster. I sat down
next to a gentleman. He said, I want to talk to you about the
prescription drug bill. I almost thought I had to put a helmet on to
hear what he had to say. I said, What is that? He said, I am going to
save $4,000 this year. Thank you, Congresswoman, for passing that.
Thank you for providing that first-time availability of a prescription
drug bill through Medicare.
I want those who are watching to know this is an extremely
revolutionary bill and an availability of a prescription drug bill for
our seniors.
Doctor, I would like to yield back my time to you. I appreciate your
efforts in this area, and I join with you in seeing that we get that
medical liability reform bill passed once again.
Mr. GINGREY. Thank you. As you point out, it could be seven times. We
had passed it just last year, and I guess we will have to do it again
this year maybe for the eighth time.
I just have got a little poster here, Mr. Speaker, that I want to
call my colleagues' attention to here. The gentlewoman from West
Virginia talked about it a little bit in regard to these issues of the
need for tort reform, the cost factor, Federal outlays for health care
on the rise. Yes, indeed. Nearly one-third of all Federal spending goes
towards health care. And that is what she is talking about.
A lot of this spending is defensive medicine. It is unnecessary. She
is talking about the trauma center in West Virginia that had to close
because they could not get coverage. They could not get the
neurosurgeon to take the liability or a thoracic surgeon to see that
youngster with the penny lodged in his windpipe.
These are the issues; and, yes, everybody that comes into the
emergency room anywhere in the country with a headache, doctors know
physical diagnosis and ability to examine by looking in the eyes and
checking the blood pressure. But they are not sending that patient home
with a couple of aspirins and careful instructions to call the next
day. They get a CAT scan and the most expensive one that is coming
along for that particular year.
She did such a great job. Finally, in her last two minutes and I am
so glad that she did that in regard to the Medicare Prescription Drug
Act, part D. We have heard all of these naysayers. I am sure they were
out there in 1965 when we had the optional Medicare part B which 98
percent of seniors are paying upwards of $90 a month to be part of
because it is a good program. This is a good program.
[[Page H611]]
I thank Representative Shelly Moore Capito for giving us some
information, personal anecdotal statistics from West Virginia. It is
absolutely true.
At this point it is a pleasure to have as part of our team tonight,
and actually my co-chair of the Policy Committee, the Republican Policy
Committee on HealthCare Reform, another physician, a freshman who does
not seem like a freshman because of his knowledge and skill and
ability. I am talking about the gentleman, Dr. Charles Boustany,
cardio-thoracic surgeon from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Before I yield him most of the remaining time in this special hour, I
want to thank him for the work that he did on the gulf coast during not
only Hurricane Katrina but Rita that hit his area, his district, and
devastated over 125 miles of that great part of our country and what he
has tried to do in regard to going forward to work on issues, like
making sure in a catastrophe like that in the future that we would have
a data bank of physicians by specialty so that we would be much more
organized and could respond like he did, personally, in an efficient
fashion.
So at this point it is indeed a pleasure to call on the gentleman
from Louisiana, Representative Boustany. He will talk a little bit
about competition in health care and some of the hallmarks for reform.
Mr. BOUSTANY. I thank my friend and colleague from Georgia for
yielding time to me. Also, I thank him for putting on this program this
evening. It is very important that we inform the American public about
these issues in health care.
It is undeniable that the United States has the finest health care
system in the world, and I have seen it firsthand as a cardio-thoracic
surgeon. I have had the great privilege of saving many lives in the
practice of cardio-thoracic surgery. At the same time, I also learned
firsthand about the difficulties that families go through and the high
cost of health care incurred by families and small businesses.
Particularly, when my son was involved in a terrible car accident
that required months of hospital care and the stress it put on my
family and the financial pressure really awakened me to many of the
problems that we have in our health care system. So I come here with
strong determination to try to do something to help American families
with the ever-rising cost and burden of providing health care.
Health care costs have doubled between 1993 and 2004, growing to
nearly $1.9 trillion and representing 16 percent of the United States
gross domestic product. When you look at health care, we have to make
sure that it is affordable, it is available and accessible because I
commonly say, I often say back at home, All health care is local. What
good is health care if you cannot access it and get it where it is
affordable where you live? That is where you need it. It does not do
you any good if it is available in New York or Boston if you cannot get
it at home in Lafayette, Louisiana.
So with this unsustainable rise in cost, we have got to do something
to bring the cost down and make it more affordable and available.
Competition is the key.
I think there are three words that really describe the principles for
health care reform: information, choice, and control.
{time} 2100
First of all, with regard to information, we need a free flow of
information about prices, about cost to families, about cost of
hospital care, cost when you go to see the doctor, the cost you incur
when you go.
We also need a free flow of information about quality and outcomes,
because if we have this flow of information, and information technology
was mentioned earlier this evening, information technology is a
critical part in providing this kind of information to the consumer and
to ultimately the patient, to the family.
I often say what good is it if you do not have this information. If I
go to the store to buy soft drinks or sodas for my family, I can go
down the aisle, and there is a wide range of products, different
quality, different flavors, different prices, and I make an informed
decision. But in health care, we cannot do that. So we need
information.
Choices, that is the other one. If we had a wide range of choices in
health care, wide range of insurance products, then we could create
this competition that will bring the cost down. It is one of the things
we hope to see in the Medicare prescription Part D program, where we
create competition to drive the cost of pharmaceuticals down for our
seniors in these plans.
Another way of providing choice is certainly the health savings
accounts that were mentioned earlier, associated health plans which is
something we passed in the House. And there is also a bill that I am a
proud cosponsor of; this is a bill by Representative Shadegg, H.R.
2355, the Health Care Choice Act of 2005, which will allow people to
shop for insurance products, health care insurance, across State lines,
again creating more competition and hopefully bringing the cost down.
The final piece of this is control. We do not have portability and
control. I want to put health care destiny back in the control of
families and individuals because I believe by doing so we create true
portability in health care, and if we do this, then we will solve a lot
of the problems. We will free up our businesses, let them do what they
do best, by providing work and wages and so forth, but let us let
families have that portability in health care.
Those are the keys to health care reform. It is important to
recognize, if you look at our health care system, 45 percent of all
health care spending is in the form of Medicare and Medicaid and other
Federal programs. Fifty-five percent of it is in the so-called private
sector, and yet what we have is a price control system where everything
is set by basically paying at the Medicare rates, which creates some
degree of rationing in health care. Yet, on the other side of the coin,
when you look at what is happening to providers, providers are having
to deal with the free ranging, inflated cost of supplies,
pharmaceuticals, surgical equipment, and this has created major
distortions in our health care system. This also needs to be addressed.
So, again, if we can create competition by using those three
principles I mentioned, then I believe we can truly start to bring the
costs down in health care and make it more affordable, available and
accessible for American families.
I thank my colleague from Georgia for yielding to me, and I
appreciate this opportunity to comment on health care.
Mr. GINGREY. I thank Mr. Boustany so much for being with us this
evening and for pointing out the rising cost of health care and what we
need to do about it. I particularly appreciate what you said about
transparency.
In the final few minutes, I am going to talk a little bit about the
health savings accounts that the President has promoted and increased
the amount of money that can be put aside, very much like an IRA, but
this would be an IRA for health care. Because you are absolutely right;
we use the expression, and maybe it is really apropos for health care,
skinning the game. They are going to be better consumers. People do a
great job shopping for an automobile or an appliance or new flat-screen
television set, and they may go to eight different stores, discount big
box stores, trying to save an extra fifty bucks on a plasma TV. And
people do that, and I do not blame them. We can do that in health care,
too.
I think Mr. Boustany is absolutely right. There will be a day when we
do have electronic medical records throughout the system. Secretary
Leavitt is totally committed to this, and Dr. Brailer, as our good
friend Mr. Murphy said at the outset of the hour, but will also need to
be done as everybody is interconnected, every medical office, every
clinic, whether it is the size of Mayo or Rochester or whatever, or
maybe just a two-doctor shop, everybody's information about their
patients is interconnected so that we know what their needs are and
also the information that physicians, their pricing information, what
does an OB/GYN typically charge for a routine hysterectomy or delivery
or cesarean section; what does a vascular surgeon charge for the
procedures that they do. We call those endarterectomies, put in a graft
to go around a blocked vessel. What does a general surgeon charge to
[[Page H612]]
take out a gallbladder through laparoscopic, or appendix or thyroid?
There are more than one good doctor in each community. I do not know
about cardiothoracic surgeons. They are in short supply, but there are
lots of us OB/GYNs and general surgeons that do a good job.
People will one day in the near future, because of what we are doing,
the efforts of this Republican majority and this President, who is
totally committed to making sure that we continue to have the best
health care system in the world, we will see the day that in a secure
environment, people can look on a Web site and know exactly what the
differences are and shop economically for not the cheapest health care
but the best-priced health care and good health care.
We talked a little bit at the outset of the health savings account
issue. I think that this is a wonderful opportunity. I wanted to show
maybe one last poster in regard to that, because we hear a lot of
criticism sometimes here on the floor of this Chamber, and sometimes
out in the halls and maybe indeed sometimes back home in our districts,
say, oh, you know, the health savings account, they are just, here
again, something for the rich, and you Republicans only care about the
people that have lots of money. Well, look, Mr. Speaker, at this health
savings account, not just for the healthy and wealthy.
Seventy-three percent of those who have established, and there are
about 3 million now and we predict within the next couple of years 10
million, and it is growing rapidly, 73 percent have families with
children. Fifty-seven percent of these holding health savings accounts
are over age 40; 35 percent are from households with four or more
people; 40 percent are high school graduates or have technical school
training as the highest level of education. Also, I might say
parenthetically, some of these folks are the most successful because
they are hardworking and work by the sweat of their brow; 40 percent
did not indicate any prior coverage.
So this is something for everything, and for those who do not want
that, the President has talked about refundable tax credits to purchase
health insurance for an individual. When I say refundable tax credits,
I mean somebody that, because they are a lower economic earner and they
do not typically pay taxes, they do not get any advantage from a
deduction. So we actually give them money. A refundable tax credit
means you give them money for the sole purpose of purchasing health
insurance. These are some of the things that we wanted to talk about.
The gentleman from Louisiana, I would be glad to yield to him for a
comment.
Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I also
point out another feature of health savings accounts and it is
something very important to think about; and that is, as we get a large
part of our generation to sign on to these health savings accounts, as
our generation moves up into the Medicare years, that money will accrue
and could be used for health care costs incurred at that time. It will
help take some of the burden off the Medicare system in the future
potentially. So it is a good, good feature as we look at these. Again,
it helps the individual, it helps the family to control their own
health care destiny.
So I just wanted to point that out, in addition to these very good
facts that you pointed out as well.
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and just in the
closing minutes, I would say that also it is important for people to
know that while people maintain these health savings accounts and add
to them each year, they enjoy the miracle of compound interest as these
accounts grow. They can only be spent on health care, but typical
insurance does not cover dental care or a lot of eye care. It certainly
will not pay for a hearing aid, no cosmetic surgery. It does not help
women who have infertility problems who need assisted reproductive
technology so they can achieve the wonderful joy of childbirth and
raising a child or children. All of those things can be paid for out of
these health savings accounts.
We talked about purchasing long-term health care insurance, and when
a person turns 65, they can actually use some of this money for other
things.
Well, that wraps it up. I see my time is drawing to a conclusion. I
think the Speaker has tapped that gavel a little bit, and I do not want
to cut into my good friend's, the gentleman from Georgia on the
Democratic side, and his special hour. So at that we will conclude.
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