White House Tips Off on Health Portion of State of the Union Address

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ — At The Health and Human Capital Management Congress today, Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, Roy Ramthun provided insight into a major portion of the President’s State of the Union address next week. Mr. Ramthun outlined various areas of interest to the administration, including the high price of health care in the United States, the uninsured, unfair tax benefits, the need for electronic medical records, Health Savings Accounts, liability reform, association health plans, the modernization of Medicare and Medicaid and how health care will be a sizeable portion of the President’s budget.

The speech outlined how health care in the US is currently 16 percent of the gross national product, or two trillion dollars per year and how rising health care costs to US employers have begun to impede employee raises and therefore standard of living. Mr. Ramthun continued to discuss the economics of health care in the United States, and explained how the President would like to see tax reform to help even out tax benefits among those who have a corporate health insurance plan and those who pay for their own health insurance.

Mr. Ramthun pointed out President Bush’s concern over electronic medical records, pointing out that many of the displaced Katrina victims had their medical records swept away with no hope of recovering them, yet they still need treatment in other parts of the country where they now reside. Electronic medical records would have helped this problem, as they have with veterans, since the Department of Veterans Affairs uses an electronic medical record system.

The current political issues of liability reform and association health plans, which have been passed by the House of Representatives but not by the Senate, were also touched upon by Mr. Ramthun. The President would also like to modernize Medicare and Medicaid, a system that Mr. Ramthun pointed out is running on a model designed for an America of the 1940s and 1960s, and is not reflective of America today.

Roy Ramthun is Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. As a member of the National Economic Council staff, Mr. Ramthun is the senior health policy advisor to the President regarding health care issues involving Medicare, Medicaid, and the Internal Revenue Code. Before joining the President’s staff, Mr. Ramthun was the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for health initiatives. In this role, he actively promoted the Treasury’s implementation of Health Savings Accounts and the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) program.

World Congress is the producer of The World Health Care Congress, The World Health Care Congress — Europe, The World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress, The Health & Human Capital Management Congress, and The World Congress Leadership Summit Series. World Congress events convene CEOs and senior executives from all segments of the healthcare industry, with the latest thought leaders and case studies, representing innovative, solution- oriented approaches to make significant advances in healthcare cost and quality. The panel which Mr. Ramthun was on also included George Bennett, Chairman and CEO of Health Dialog, and Harold (Hank) Gardner, MD, President, Human Capital Management Services.

CONTACT: Tracey Fielding, World Congress, 781-939-2555, tracey.fielding@worldcongress.com

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World Congress

CONTACT: Tracey Fielding of World Congress, +1-781-939-2555,tracey.fielding@worldcongress.com

Web site: http://www.worldcongress.com/