Bush Defends Tax Cuts, Urges Congress to Act on Patients’ Rights, Medicare Drug Benefit

President Bush yesterday defended his tax cut package and "demanded" that Congress act on his fall agenda, including a patients' bill of rights and a Medicare prescription drug benefit, when lawmakers return from the August recess, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. With a "stagnant" economy and a "rapidly shrinking federal surplus," Bush's spending plans are under financial pressure, the Inquirer reports. In addition, congressional Democrats are using reports that the surplus is shrinking to attack Bush's tax cuts. Recent reports estimate that the government will need to take about $9 billion from the Social Security surplus this year to meet other budgetary requirements. The "bitter partisan dispute" over the surplus and taxes is likely to lead to a "contentious" fall legislative session. In addition, Bush and congressional Democrats still remain "far apart" on patients' rights legislation. Speaking at the American Legion's annual convention yesterday, Bush focused on defense issues, but noted his support for the House-passed version of patients' rights legislation (Hutcheson, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/30). Under the House bill (HR 2653), passed earlier this month, patients could sue health plans in state courts -- generally considered more favorable to plaintiffs -- under a new set of federal rules that would cap non-economic damage awards at $1.5 million. Courts could award patients up to $1.5 million in punitive damages, but only in cases where patients win complaints against health plans before an outside appeals panel and an HMO "still persists in refusing the care they need" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/2). "I support a good bill that's already passed the House, one that serves patients first and doctors, but one that will not encourage frivolous or junk lawsuits that could conceivably throw people off their health care insurance," Bush said (Bush speech, 8/29). A transcript of Bush's remarks is available online.

Medicare Surplus Grows
In other surplus news, the Federation of American Hospitals released a paper yesterday stating that the Medicare Part A Trust Fund will have $12 billion more than previously estimated in the next decade. Using data from a recent Congressional Budget Office report on the surplus, the FAH explains that over the next 10 years, the Medicare trust fund will have a surplus of $404 billion, up from the CBO's January estimate of $392 billion for the same period. The FAH said that any surplus in the Medicare trust fund should be used solely on Medicare spending, particularly to help America's "hard-pressed rural hospitals" (FAH release, 8/29). Recent estimates, however, have indicated that the government will need to spend the Part A surplus on other operations (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/23).