Healthcare Issues Attract Plenty of Talk but Little Action

In its second year, a national public-relations blitz called “Cover the Uninsured Week” appears to have achieved the political equivalent of must-see TV.

Last year’s 800-odd events have mushroomed to more than 2,100, and scores of elected and would-be elected officials, including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, have gone before the cameras to pay homage to the week’s healthcare theme.

They’re all talking about ways to help the nation’s 44 million uninsured to get health coverage.

But some analysts wonder whether the lawmakers who are rolling out new proposals and recycling old ones are more concerned about scoring political points than finding solutions to the problems generated by a fractured healthcare system.

Despite the equally fervent declarations coming from every side that, as Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) said, “Now is not soon enough to get the job done,” fundamental philosophical differences -- as well as the war in Iraq, terrorism fears and the federal budget deficit -- will continue to determine what, if anything, comes of all the talk.

Across the country, groups from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the AFL-CIO, from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Islamic Society of North America, have sponsored workshops, town hall meetings and news conferences this week to call attention to the problems caused by rising healthcare costs and shrinking coverage -- and to demand government action.

But in the nation’s capital, the policy proposals presented by separate groups of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have almost nothing in common and come wrapped in political invective directed at the other side.

For instance, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said Tuesday the key difference between the Republicans’ targeted, tax-based proposals and Democratic bills to expand existing government programs was “the choice [between] superior healthcare for most Americans and finding ways to include the rest of the Americans, or mediocre healthcare for all Americans.”

Neil Trautwein, chief healthcare lobbyist for the National Assn. of Manufacturers, said he supported the Senate GOP package -- developed in consultation with the White House -- precisely because its proposals were limited in scope.

They include previous proposals, such as malpractice reform and tax credits, as well as a new plan to forgive some student loans for college graduates who invest in tax-free, high-deductible tax savings plans.

“This is not Hillary-Care Two,” Trautwein said, referring to the failed comprehensive reform plan championed in the early 1990s by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) noted that healthcare bills passed by the GOP-controlled House on Wednesday had cleared the chamber in the past, but never became law.

Brown accused the GOP of “using the plight of the uninsured ... to hand out more tax breaks and butter up their corporate contributors.”

The House approved limits on medical malpractice awards and a measure to allow employees with flexible medical spending accounts to roll over as much as $500 left from one year into the next.

House Democrats, meanwhile, introduced legislation they said would cover as many as half of the uninsured.

Their three bills would make it easier for low-income parents to qualify for Medicaid, allow adults aged 55 to 64 to buy Medicare coverage and offer small businesses and the self-employed tax credits to cover half their health insurance costs.

Kerry is spotlighting his plan to expand access to healthcare and reduce costs during a four-day swing through several states that could be key to the presidential contest.

On Wednesday, he told an audience in Orlando, Fla., that President Bush had misled the public about a new prescription drug measure he promised would cut costs.

A woman who identified herself as a 78-year-old widow said she had tried to buy lower-priced drugs from Canada, only to discover her medication was not available there.

“I can’t afford the prices that they have,” she said of U.S. pharmacies. “What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to elect John Kerry president,” the Massachusetts senator responded, prompting loud applause.

“Remember that old Alka-Seltzer ad, ‘Fast relief?’ ” he added with a grin. “Well, I’m your fast relief. It’s the fastest relief you’re going to get.”

Between the lines of the dramatic differences between the parties’ approaches is the question of cost.

“The really hard thing is that if you want to do a lot on healthcare, it’s going to cost a lot,” said Jeff Lemieux, executive director of Centrists.Org, a bipartisan policy think tank in Washington. “And no one’s interested in repealing tax cuts or letting the tax cuts expire.

“Until we start talking about the funding, it’s going to be hard to do anything.”

A study released Monday by the Urban Institute, a social policy research organization in Washington, said that providing health insurance to those who lacked coverage would increase medical spending by $48 billion a year.

Some analysts think growing public concern about cost, quality and availability of healthcare could force Washington to act -- eventually.

“How much it plays out in 2004 depends on how much the cloud blows over on Iraq and terrorism, but in 2006, these issues are likely to be much larger,” said Robert Blendon, a professor and health policy analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff predicted that the gathering debate on healthcare issues “will make both [presidential] candidates commit to more action than we’ve seen since 1992.”

“There could be a real focus on this issue in 2005,” he said.

Times staff writer Matea Gold in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this report.