Improving Our Nation's Health

Extended the Life of the Medicare Trust Fund Until 2015

• In 1993, Medicare was expected to run out of money in 1999. Thanks to Clinton-Gore Administration reforms, the Medicare Trustees reported in March 1999 that the life of the Medicare Trust Fund had been extended until 2015.

[source: Dept. of Health and Human Services, 3/30/99]

Protected and Modernized Medicare

• Since 1993, the Clinton Administration has assigned more federal prosecutors and FBI agents to fight health care fraud than ever before. As a result, convictions have gone up a full 240% saving more than $35 billion in health care claims.
• President Clinton has enacted reforms that provided annual screening mammograms for beneficiaries age 40 and older to help detect breast cancer; a diabetes self-management benefit; coverage of colorectal screening and cervical cancer screening (early detection of cancer can result in less costly treatment, better quality of life, and, in some cases, greater likelihood of cure); coverage of bone mass measurement tests to help women detect osteoporosis, and increased reimbursement rates for immunizations that protect seniors from pneumonia, influenza, and hepatitis.
• President Clinton and Vice President Gore have proposed a plan to further reform and modernize Medicare's benefits, including an optional prescription drug benefit that is affordable and available to all beneficiaries.

[source: National Economic Council/Domestic Policy Council]

Enacted Single Largest Investment in Health Care for Children since 1965

• The $24 billion Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will provide health care coverage for up to five million children.
• Two million children have already been enrolled in CHIP.
• In October 1999 President Clinton announced new outreach initiatives to enroll millions more uninsured, eligible children.

Fought for and Signed Meaningful Health Insurance Reform

• In 1996, President Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act which limits exclusions for pre-existing conditions, makes coverage portable and helps individuals who lose jobs maintain coverage. As many as 25 million people will benefit from this law.

[source: FY 2000 Budget, p. 83]

Working to Enact a Strong, Enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights for All Americans

• Leading by example, the President directed all federal agencies to ensure that their employees and beneficiaries have the benefits and rights guaranteed under the proposed Patients' Bill of Rights. 85 million Americans covered by federal health plans have the security of knowing they will have fair access to health care.

[source: FY 2000 Budget, p. 85]

Raised Child Immunization Rates to All Time High

• Childhood immunization coverage rates in 1998 were the highest ever recorded. 90 percent of toddlers in 1996, 1997 and 1998 received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines, surpassing the President's 1993 goal.

[source: Dept of Health & Human Services, 9/23/99]

Teen Pregnancy Rate Reaches All-Time Low

• The teen birth rate has fallen seven years in a row, by 18 percent from 1991 to 1998. The teen pregnancy rate is now the lowest rate on record.

[source: HHS, Centers for Disease Control, 4/29/99]

Ensuring Safe Food

• President Clinton created the President's Council on Food Safety to develop a comprehensive food safety strategic plan for federal agencies.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration implemented a new science-based inspection system -- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points -- and reduced the prevalence of salmonella in raw meat and poultry by as much as 50 percent. The President has issued new rules to prevent foodborne illness such as E.coli.
• The President signed the Food Quality Protection Act, which included special safeguards for kids and strengthened laws governing pesticides and food safety.

[source: Executive Order 13100, 8/25/98; USDA Press Release, 10/7/99; Presidential Statement, 8/3/96; USDA Press Release, 10/7/99]