Bush Kisses Up To Elders
Back in January, Iowa set George W. Bush on the road to the Republican presidential nomination with a solid caucus win. Bush returned to the Hawkeye State Wednesday, with the nomination in his back pocket and the White House in his eye. And instead of preaching Republican orthodoxy, he's tackling traditionally Democratic themes.
"I will make affordable, long-term care insurance, 'peace-of-mind' insurance, a priority," the Texas governor promised an attentive group of older Americans gathered in a senior living center in Davenport. Typically, Bush's approach relies not on direct infusions of cash, but on tax incentives.
Standing before a backdrop patterned with the words "Quality of Life," Bush suggested a full income-tax deduction for insurance payments covering long-term care. Right now, only taxpayers who itemize or who have very high medical expenses can deduct their premiums. Bush would let all Americans deduct insurance costs. His campaign figures that would cost $5.1 billion over five years.
Only 5 percent of Americans currently pay for long-term care through private insurance plans, the Bush campaign says. Most of those costs are met by Medicare or by private funds. Bush, as a Republican, doesn't want to see Medicare grow any more than it has to, and would like to minimize the role of public money in health care.
But Bush says paying for long-term care out-of-pocket is equally problematic. "We have a system today where a person goes into a nursing home and quickly consumes their life savings," he told the Davenport seniors.
Hence, the tax-incentive approach, which is typically Republican in its preference for encouragement over disbursement.
Vice President Al Gore's campaign was quick to release a scolding "fact sheet," which said Bush was "again making empty promises he can't pay for because he has already spent the surplus on his risky tax scheme." The Gore campaign berated Bush's record on health care and listed the Clinton-Gore administration's achievements, including a $3,000 tax credit for some 2 million families looking after older relatives, and a plan to expand Medicare to cover long-term care alternatives outside of nursing homes.
Bush also threw a bone to families looking after seniors at home. He said he would create a $2,750 exemption for people caring for elderly parents, spouses or other family members at home. That would cost another $2.3 billion over five years, the campaign estimates.
Wednesday's event was the latest in a string of proposals to improve health care, education, housing and the environment. Many of Bush's suggestions have met with "too little, too late" criticism from Democrats. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, for example, blasted his long-term care plan as "a day late and a dollar short." But the fur should really fly next Monday, when Bush will release details about his controversial plan to overhaul Soial Security.
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As it happens, the Clinton administration was also fighting for the hearts and minds of senior citizens Wednesday. At a White House event, the president touted a Democratic plan for providing a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
To dramatize his point that the high cost of prescription drugs is hurting many older Americans, Mr. Clinton appeared with Betty Dizik, a 73-year-old widow who said she sometimes skips her diabetes and heart medications because she can't afford them. The president said that in this era of historic prosperity, there is "no reason why senior citizens should have to make a choice between their health, their food or their daily existence."