76-18-A5

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Medical Care

Transcript For years now American has had a pluralistic health care system. There are government hospitals for veterans, government-paid care for the needy, public institutions for psychiatric patients and various rehabilitation programs and for the most of us -- private medical care paid by ourselves. Can anyone say this system of private medicine augmented by government programs has not worked? Americans are living longer (72.5 years). Infant mortality in the last 15 or 16 years has dropped almost 40%. Our general death rate is down 14% and deaths for women in childbirth have fallen more than 70%. Low income people go to doctors twice as often as the more affluent and three times as often as they did in the '30's . We have one doctor for every 581 people and one employed registered nurse for every 230. Those last items should quiet those who are now proclaiming high costs have put health care beyond the reach of the average citizen. They talk of catastrophic illnesses and $50,000 medical bills as if those are routine. No one denies such things do take place, but only 8/l0ths of one percent of Americans will have a medical bill of even $5,000 in a single year and 80% of those are financed by existing government programs. Something called private health insurance started in America 125 years ago. At that time it was coverage against steamboat and railroad accidents. We've come a long way since then. Today, more than 183 million of us are protected by hospital insurance, 170 million have surgical insurance and more than 160 million are covered for doctor's fees. As for catastrophic illness, 150 million Americans have policies with high benefits ranging from ceilings of $50,000 to no ceiling at all. More than two-thirds of the $100 billion-plus which Americans spend on health each year is paid by insurance companies, charities, businesses and government. The remainder is out-of-pocket and that includes over-the-counter drug store purchases of even such items as rubbing alcohol. I realize figures are hard to follow when you are hearing them on radio, but listen to these if you will and I think you'll agree there is no need for anyone to push the panic button. A 1970 survey of out-of-pocket medical expenses, including health insurance premiums, found six percent of the people had no expense at all, 11 percent spent less than $100. The biggest grouping -- 40 percent had annual expenses between $100 and $500; 26 percent had bills of $500 to $1000; and 15% spent more than $1,000. This hardly sounds like we need a compulsory catastrophic insurance program which will add $370 to everyone's yearly tax burden. Admittedly, health costs have gone up since 1970, but not as much as food or housing. As I've said, catastrophic insurance alone would raise taxes $370 a year for each me of us. Can you imagine what comprehensive insurance would cost? Right now some savings are realized because we're allowed a tax deduction for medical costs above a certain amount. But, if you are in a 20 percent bracket, you are still paying 80 percent of the bill yourself. If there is an argument that most of us don't buy or can't afford as much health insurance as we should have, government can remedy that without adding any new bureaucrats or administrative overhead. Let the government give us a tax credit for any health insurance premiums we pay . A tax credit means we subtract the amount of the premium from the income tax we owe the government. Thus at no added expense to one's self a citizen can afford health insurance of his own choosing. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 76-18-A5 Production Date 08/15/1977 Book/Page RPtV-181 Audio Youtube? No
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