MEMORANDUM BY STEVE FORBES
March 27, 1997
TO: REPUBLICAN OFFICIALS AND CONSERVATIVE LEADERS
FROM: STEVE FORBES, HONORARY CHAIRMAN, AMERICANS FOR HOPE, GROWTH
AND OPPORTUNITY
SUBJECT: SEIZING THE HIGH GROUND ON HEALTH CARE
The GOP is about to be out-flanked again, this time on health care.
Millions of Americans fear they could be wiped out by major illness or tragic
accident. Moreover, many Americans lack employer provided health insurance
and don,t qualify for Medicaid. Especially gripping is the question: what
happens to their children in an emergency? President Clinton and liberal
Democrats are exploiting this legitimate concern to advance their scheme
of a nationalized health care system.
Why are Republicans so determined to remain passive, defensive? Some are
backing away from choice-expanding innovations like Medical Savings Accounts.
The Hatch-Kennedy Kidcare bill creates a new, complicated, top-down federal
health care entitlement paid for in part by tax increases. Why do Republicans
let the statists occupy the high ground and stay on the offensive?
Republicans should seize the initiative and provide a vision for a Medicare
Choice program and a complete and comprehensive free market health care
insurance program. A health insurance program must give individuals and
families genuine catastrophic health insurance. No more nightmares about
financial ruin and bankruptcy for major illness and accidents. You are covered
fully when your house burns down. Why not the same for medical catastrophes?
- Assure people of "last" dollar coverage in a major illness,
which they need more than "first" dollar coverage. No more open
ended liabilities.
- Genuine choice for health care providers. No more dictation from employers
or federal bureaucrats.
- Restore the doctor-patient relationship by letting the patient, rather
than third party payers, ultimately control his health care dollars.
Here's how:
- Allow full-blown MSAs for Medicare. This way, the beneficiaries will have
better coverage. Today, most have to buy Medigap insurance because of the
inadequacies of Part A & Part B.
- Make MSAs real in the general insurance market. Take away last year,s
suffocating, kill-this-innovation-in-the-crib restrictions. Many carriers
won't offer MSAs as a result. Some 3,000 employers and the United Mine Workers
offer MSA variations. Forbes magazine has done so for 5 years. Our expenses
per employee are lower than they were in 1990 and no one is in managed care.
- Equalize tax treatment of individuals who buy health insurance with that
of employers.
- Republicans should advocate a refundable tax credit for uninsured families
to purchase catastrophic insurance, for those who don,t qualify for Medicaid.
Timid souls say that Clinton might veto MSAs or a refundable tax credit
for health care. So what? Must we leave the field in the battle of ideas
because we have an opponent?
Why do Congressional Republicans fear Clinton-Gore more than the Democrats
do? Why are Republicans so afraid to take their case to the American people?
Voters will rightly ask, "If you,re unwilling to advocate your principles
and policies, why does the Republican Party exist?"
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Contact: Joel Rosenberg, Communications Director, (703) 925-9281 or [email protected]
AHGO web site: http://www.ahgo.org