Mr. Garwood submits for himself and, Mr. MacGyver, Mr. Perry, Mr. Hollins, Mr. Conway, Ms. Lee, Mr. Wilder, Mr. Heortman, Mr. Redfield, Mr. Cherry, Mr. Cole, Mr. Frappier, Mr. Ellison, and Mr. Wisniewski, the "Carter Care Act for Children and Seniors of 2004":

A BILL

To provide for the creation of a federal health insurance for low-income or uninsured seniors, exceeding the age of 60, and children, not exceeding the age of 18.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

WHEREAS

The office of the honorable Kurt Garwood has discovered that there has been a severe increase of Americans without health insurance in the past 10 years.

The office has also found that over 40 million American citizens are without health insurance.

THEREFORE

This bill will create a federal health insurance program that will replace medicaid as well as cover for uninsured children. It shall be named Carter-Truman Care for two presidents who tried to push it forward years ago.

SECTION 1. Provisions

a. Congress shall allocate $10 billion to the funding of Carter-Truman care as well as transfer all medicaid and medicare spending to the funding of Carter-Truman care.

b. Carter-Truman care will effectively supplant all medicaid programs.

c. Carter-Truman care shall consist of:

i. All persons over age 60 and under 18 without health insurance shall be covered by this bill, pending on registration at a local community health center or Carter-Truman Care office.

ii. Carter-Truman Care will cover for all medical costs suffered by the patient until they reach age 18 or from age 60 till terminus of life.

iii. Any doctor or HMO charging for services must not charge the government greater than the normal costs they would charge patients with private health insurance.

iv. If any such abuses occur, the doctor may be subject to fines and damages owed the government for all extra costs imposed upon it.

Section 2

a. The federal government shall distribute the funds evenly to each state, pending on amount of uninsured persons in the state and relative distribution compared to the rest of the country via block grants.

b. Each state must comply with the following regulations:

i. Any individual who passes the means test for Carter-Truman Care must be allowed to receive it.

ii. HMOS, doctors and any businesses in the medical profession may not overcharge the government for their services or they will face fines and punitive damages.

iii. Carter-Truman Care shall act similarly to private health insurance, only paid for by the federal and state governments instead of the individual citizen.

iv. Carter-Truman Care shall only cover the elderly exceeding age 60 and the youth not exceeding age 18.

v. The means test for Carter-Truman Care is set at a maximum total family income of $40,000, unless there are mitigating circumstances such as death of heads of households, bankruptcy, loss of employment etc.

vi. Any other restrictions or guidelines may be administered by the states as long as they do not interfere with the above regulations and do not constitute any form of sexual, racial or socioeconomic discrimination.

LET IT BE RESOLVED THAT:

a. Carter-Truman Care for the Uninsured shall supplant all medicaid programs by the fiscal year 2006 and come into popular use by the aforementioned year.

This post has been edited by ColCarp on Dec 2 2004, 02:58 AM