Candidate Review
Health
Care
General
Wesley Clark
. . . here is Wesley Clarks health plan. He bases it on the sort
of care he got in the army, which makes sense. This is from a speech on October 28, 2003.
"One of the great benefits to the health plan I had
in the Army was that it emphasized prevention at every step along the way -
from annual physicals, to cholesterol screenings, to routine check-ups. The
Army recognized from the start the potential of early diagnosis and prevention
to lengthen lives and reduce health care costs. Frankly, when I got out of the
Army, I was surprised to learn how many health plans didn't require preventive
screenings of any kind.
My plan promotes prevention, diagnosis, and management of
health and disease by working to ensure that all Americans have access to and
incentives to use recommended preventive services that would diagnose diseases
early, improve health and constrain long-term costs.
It also reorients the health system towards payment of
services that have value. My plan puts its trust in independent health
clinicians rather than HMO executives or pharmaceutical company marketers to
conduct clinical research comparisons to help identify what works best.
It would also evaluate and promote the proper role and use
of cost sharing to reduce excessive and expensive utilization - as well as to
avoid "under insurance," which can be caused by excessive deductibles
or co-payments. The information produced by these independent experts - who
would have no monetary conflicts -- would help all purchasers of health care
make informed choices about what services produce the best medical outcomes.
This would protect and promote health as well as guard against wasteful and
potentially harmful spending.
As we improve care, we must be certain to make it more
affordable for taxpayers, enrollees, businesses, and federal, state, and local
governments. To this end, I would institute competitive bidding for Medicare
services; remove legal loopholes that block high quality, more affordable
generic drugs from coming to the market; promote responsible malpractice
reform; and aggressively pursue and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the system.
Where we can make our health care systems more responsive to the medical and
cost needs of our people, we should not hesitate to do so."
Former
Governor Howard Dean
And here is Howard Dean's proposal on health care, from his
website.
"First, and most important, in order to extend
health coverage to every uninsured child and young adult up to age 25, we'll
redefine and expand two essential federal and state programs -- Medicaid and
the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Right now, they only offer
coverage to children from lower-income families. Under my plan, we cover all
kids and young adults up to age 25 -- middle income as well as lower income.
This aspect of my plan will give 11.5 million more kids and young adults access
to the healthcare they need.
Second, we'll give a leg up to working families struggling
to afford health insurance. Adults earning up to 185% of the poverty level --
$16,613 -- will be eligible for coverage through the already existing Children
Health Insurance Program. By doing this, an additional 11.8 million people will
have access to the care they need.
. . . Finally, to ensure that the maximum number of
American men, women and children have access to healthcare, we must address
corporate responsibility. There are many corporations that could provide
healthcare to their employees but choose not to. The final element of this plan
is a clear, strong message to corporate America that providing health coverage
is fundamental to being a good corporate citizen. I look at business tax
deductions as part of a compact between American taxpayers and corporate
America. We give businesses certain benefits, and expect them to live up to
certain responsibilities."
Senator
John Edwards
Here is John Edwards health plan, from a speech on July 28,
2003.
"First, I propose a new bargain with America's
parents to make sure every child gets health insurance. If we're going to fix
our broken health care system, the responsible place to start is with the
greatest injustice—uninsured children.
More than a century ago, we made sure every child in
America could get an education. And 60 years ago, President Harry Truman
recognized a responsibility that we've not yet met. He said, "The health
of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite
public responsibility."
We can't reach that goal unless both government and parents
take responsibility to put children first.
. . . I will double resources for public health clinics
just like this one. I want clinics to be able to keep longer hours so they can
serve working families. They need to be in convenient locations: next to
schools and shopping malls so parents can use them. And I want to offer mobile
clinics that come to the isolated and rural communities too often forgotten by
our health care system.
Finally, I will hold insurance companies, drug companies,
doctors, and lawyers responsible for keeping health care costs down. We can
never meet our responsibilities to one another if the health care system isn't
responsible about costs.
Something is wrong when drug companies are spending
billions of dollars on advertising for their new drugs while seniors are
sitting at their kitchen tables deciding what they can afford: their rent or
their medication. Something is wrong when insurance companies raise premiums by
15 percent but fail to use new technologies to lower their cost—like
eliminating unnecessary paperwork. "
Representative
Dick Gephardt
Here is the text from an ad
that Representative Gephardt is running in Iowa.
"Plan"
"When I'm president, my first week as president, I'll
go to the Congress and lay aside the Bush tax cuts and I'll use those moneys to
see to it that everybody is covered with health insurance in this country that
can never be taken away from you. I help part time employees, full time
employees. I help people who already have insurance, people who don't have
insurance. I help public employees.
"I'm Dick Gephardt and I approve this message because
it's time we did what's right."
Senator
John Kerry
And here's John Kerry's plan, as he
presented it on December 14, 2003
"In my first 100 days as President, I'll offer
America a real deal on health care that starts with cutting costs and stopping
skyrocketing premiums. Make no mistake, no one in this race will fight harder
than I will to cover the uninsured and get to universal coverage. But there is
more to the health care problem in America than covering the uninsured. The
major reason Americans don't have coverage is they can't afford it. And it's
not enough to get everyone covered if the whole country is still staggering
under the weight of our medical bills. . . .
Here's how we'll do it. Right now, only four out of every
one thousand insurance claims deal with health care costs over $50,000.
Insurance companies, however, end up spending a fifth of their expenses paying
for these very few cases. If they're spending that much, you can bet everyone
else's premiums are going to go up. Under my plan the government will pick up
most of the tab for these expensive cases - and the premiums for middle-class
families will go down.
We'll also cut the fraud and waste out of the health care
system. It would be one thing if every dime of that $4,000 was being spent on
making Americans healthier. It's not. A quarter of the money Americans spend on
health care goes to non-medical costs like paying bills and handling paperwork.
If we can have banks that use computers and technology to cut down transaction
costs to just a penny, we can surely have a health care system that does the
same. Our money should be going to health care, not filling out forms."
Senator
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich is in favor of universal health care, and sets
up his system in contrast to trillion dollar tax cuts, in a speech on September
14, 2002.
"The General Accounting Office in Washington has
written "If the US were to shift to a system of universal coverage and a
single payer, as in Canada, the savings in administrative costs (10% to private
insurers) would be more than enough to offset the expense of universal
coverage." A 7% payroll tax and a 2 percent income tax would provide the
financing. Compare this with a trillion dollar tax cut for the wealthy. We
could put in its place a single government fund which pays all medical
expenses. A single fund which provides singular protection against illness and
hopelessness. A single fund which will strengthen our families and our
businesses and will enable you to go back to the bargaining table to win those
wage increases which are essential to a better life."
Senator
Joe Lieberman
What's interesting is that health care is really on the table at
this point. Even Joe Lieberman would do something if put in office. This is
from a
speech on September 2, 2003.
"Now how can we do all this? By moving step-by-step
as we get the economy going and bring the deficit down. By smartly targeting
our resources first on the people who need the help most -- children and
workers who are falling through the cracks. By building on what works in the
current system -- and fixing what does not. By cutting waste and improving
efficiency. And by strengthening public health, wellness, and prevention
programs that will deter disease, save lives, and reduce costs.
It's not magic; it is a workable solution. For example, to
expand coverage, I am going to create new streamlined purchasing pools that
will harness the best forces of the market and the positive power of individual
choice.
Let me explain how these work. If you're a self-employed
consultant, or part-time worker, or between jobs, right now you have to buy
health insurance -- if you can find it -- on your own, at high rates. But my
plan combines millions of people to exercise vast buying power on behalf of
each of these individuals, while limiting the profits that insurance companies
can make. That will help keep premiums low.
We know this will work. Why? Because these pools are based
on the successful system that currently works for federal employees, who enjoy
a wide range of coverage options at affordable prices."
Former
Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun
[T]his is from Carol Moseley Braun's website.
"Everybody in this country already gets health
care. If you fall out and you don't have insurance, somewhere you will be cared
for. Probably in an emergency room.
It'll probably be the most expensive care you can get. And
the cost will just get shifted throughout the system to other payers - many
times, people pay for insurance through their employer. What I've proposed is a
single-payer system that will take advantage of the fact that we are already
paying 15 percent of our gross domestic product on health care, de-couple it
from employment so that it's not a burden on job creation, it's not a burden on
small businesses, and it doesn't come out of the payroll tax, which is the most
regressive tax, to begin with. And with the revenue that we have from that,
from that 15 percent, we can then afford a system much like the federal
employees have under what's called FEHBP, a federal system in which you have a
single payer but the administration takes place by the companies that
individuals choose.
The most important part of this is that the physician or
the provider and patient relationship has to be central to the health care
system. Because if you do that, then you will have a dynamic in favor of
quality of care and taking care of patients and people's illnesses - or
wellness as well, frankly, because prevention is a big part of this. But you
will have a dynamic in favor of quality that the current profit-driven system
does not have."