The White House Health Care Reform Today February 2, 1994 * Today, the Department of Health and Human Services will release a study that shows the overall impact of the President's health care reform approach on states. The bottom line: States benefit from reform. * Employers who currently offer insurance will save an average of $605 per worker (1.6% of payroll, $59.5 billion in total) on premiums in the year 2000. * Workers who are in firms that currently offer health insurance will save an average of $293 per worker ($28.9 billion in total) on premiums in the year 2000. * As a purchaser of health care coverage for their employees, states will save approximately $5.6 billion in premium payments for active employees in the year 2000 due to slower growth in overall health care costs. Additionally, states will save an estimated $704 million through federal support of health care for early retirees in the year 2000. * Overall, states will save $47.3 billion between 1996 and 2000 under the President's approach, $7 billion from the community-based long-term care program, and $40.3 billion from the remaining changes in the Medicaid program. In the year 2000, this represents $22.3 billion, $21.5 billion in Medicaid savings excluding home and community-based care and $834 million in savings from the home and community-based care program. * Is there a crisis in health care? The answer is yes. No one knows better than this countries hospitals. The President said it best yesterday when speaking to the AHA: "The problem with the health care system in this country did not just happen overnight. It happened because of the way this system is organized. Anybody who thinks there are no serious problems, no crisis in the health care system I would say go visit your local hospital."