Jon L. Christensen: “the President's budget is bad policy and bad medicine for Americans. It fails to reduce the costs of health care and…”

“the President's budget is bad policy and bad medicine for Americans. It fails to reduce the costs of health care and prescription drugs and it fails to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. It is simply unacceptable that the President continues to ignore these pressing needs, but it is inexcusable that the President plans to make our health care problems even worse. The President would inflict more pain on American seniors by slashing Medicare funding. His budget cuts $36 billion from Medicare payments to hospitals and home health providers over the next 5 years, which would severely limit seniors' access to much-needed health care and would force some seniors to pay more in premiums for that health care. The Bush budget also cuts vital funding for medical research, research needed to discover health care cures for the future. Although the National Institutes of Health is responsible for much of our country's medical advancements, the President proposes real cuts in that budget for the second year in a row. This is not a blueprint for fixing America's health care system. Instead, it can destroy it. Congress should reject this blueprint. ____________________”