President Bush has said a number of times in the past few weeks that he will veto both pieces of health insurance legislation, and that his administration supports a policy of tax breaks to encourage families to buy private insurance. "The ultimate effect of this new policy is that tens of thousands of children who have health insurance will effectively lose that insurance,'' said Morgan Moran, health insurance consultant for FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb, a Florida-based consumer group, in a telephone interview today.

When Congress returns from recess next month, House and Senate Democratic leaders will seek a compromise between their separate measures to expand the health insurance measure called 'SCHIP' that can attract enough Republican support to override a veto from the president. Groups representing hospitals and nurses said Bush's plan to make health insurance more affordable won't work because the proposed tax breaks won't help people pay for coverage.

Health insurance consultant Moran said, Bush has proposed to "tax employer-provided health benefits" while offering deductions to encourage individuals to purchase medical coverage. Those buying insurance would be allowed a deduction of $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for families. The presidents plan is intended to lower the number of Americans without medical insurance.

"Even with a tax break, coverage remains unaffordable and out of reach,'' the insurance consultant said today in a statement. The number of uninsured American's reached 46.6 million in 2005 and has grown every year of Bush's presidency, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Providing health care for the indigent has stretched Florida's and other states budgets, and unpaid bills are hurting operators of hospitals. The majority of families without medical insurance have at least one full-time worker, according to Census data. Full details on the story available at www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com/Bush_Health_Insurance_August.html

The President's latest attempt to deal with the nation's health-care problems is based on misconceptions about what causes people to seek care and, if enacted, might do more harm than good. Moran said, Instead of thinking about how to help "16 percent of the population without health insurance" to obtain it, Bush offered a complex plan to make people more conscious of the cost of health care. Predictably it centered on a tax cut, though a small group would pay more.

Administration officials estimate that 80 percent of employees would get a tax cut while the remainder would have some additional tax to pay. The latter group would be encouraged to buy less costly insurance -- perhaps with higher co-pays or a smaller network of health-care providers -- to avoid the added taxes, they say. Beginning in 2009, employers' costs of providing health insurance would become taxable income to employees for both income and payroll tax purposes. Now the value of this fringe benefit isn't taxed. At the same time, couples with health-insurance coverage -- whether provided by an employer or bought from an insurance company -- would get a new standard health-insurance deduction of $15,000 applicable to income and payroll taxes. Individuals would get a $7,500 deduction. The size of the deductions would be the same regardless of the actual cost of the insurance provided by employers or purchased privately.