TIME: Every Democratic Presidential candidate promises to lower health care costs, provide coverage

[DeepModem Mom]

The Dems' Universal Ailment
Thursday, Mar. 29, 2007 By KAREN TUMULTY


Senator Barack Obama responds to a question during a health care forum at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on March 24, 2007.
(Lionel Hahn/Abaca)

....Every Democrat in the 2008 presidential field has promised to provide health coverage to all the estimated 47 million Americans who lack it and to curb costs that have sent premiums soaring four times as fast as wages. On March 24, seven candidates showed up for a health-care forum that I moderated in Las Vegas, sponsored by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Service Employees International Union, and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. (Though all the Republican contenders were invited, none accepted. Senator Joe Biden was the only Democrat to decline.)

There was no disagreement over the need to fix health care, only over how fast it could be done. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said he could accomplish it in his first year in the White House; New York Senator Clinton said it might take until the end of her second term; everyone else was somewhere in between. There was some dispute over whether reforming the nation's health-care system would require new taxes. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards said it would; Richardson said it wouldn't; others were equivocal....

...while health care for all is now a popular slogan, Edwards is the only candidate offering a plan that would actually get to universal coverage. His proposal is much like a model that is being tried or considered in several states and that includes a combination of features. For example, it requires employers who don't insure their workers to pay into a fund for the uninsured, and individuals who don't get coverage from their employers to buy it, and provides subsidies for those who can't afford the premiums.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama disappointed many who attended the forum. Obama says he is thinking big when it comes to health-care reform, but he was noticeably uncomfortable when pressed for details. Morgan Miller, a young woman in the audience, told Obama that she had searched his campaign website for specifics and hadn't found them. "What really are your top issues when you want to talk about health care?" she asked him. "Are you going to address the pharmaceutical companies? Are you going to address the insurance companies?" Obama, pleading that his campaign was only eight weeks old, promised to answer those questions in a few months.

Clinton doesn't have a plan yet either. But she says her proposal, when it comes, will contain the most controversial element of her failed earlier effort--an employer mandate requiring all businesses to provide health insurance for their workers....

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604943,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

[Bluedogvoter]

1. I'm anxiously awaiting their plans to be released.

It will be the issue that will strongly push me towards who to vote for.

I'm leary of Ms. Clintons proposal due to the impact it will have on small business, but surely she will have some type of tax offset for that.

[Monkeyman]

2. What Got me was Edwards plan its not bad

[Bluedogvoter]

3. I'm not sure on his ideas.

It doesn't address the high cost of health care at all.

Workers won't be able to afford the premiums so where will the subsidies come from?

[Clark2008]

9. It's not good.

It relies too much on insurance companies - the very entities that have perpetuated the crap we have now.

[asthmaticeog]

4. What's with all the convoluted plans?

Why does everyone step around the breathtakingly obvious SINGLE PAYER?

[AnOhioan]

5. Everyone does step around the obvious...

except for Kucinich....he is the only one touting single payer, the others are presenting some half-baked "enrich the insurance industry" plans.

http://kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php

[asthmaticeog]

7. I know.

I live in Cleveland, I'm a pretty dyed-in-the-wool Dennis-head (I live in Stephanie Tubbs-Jones' district though). But nobody ever seems to invite him to these candidate forums.

[AnOhioan]

13. Dennis was invited, was there, and got the crowd going...

TIME conveniently neglects to mention him in the article though. BTW, nice to talk to a fellow Clevelander.

Check out video of Dennis' speech.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x20466

[asthmaticeog]

15. Great vid.

I suppose I probably should have guessed he was there but didn't get mentioned. The media's really loving this Obama/Clinton/Edwards narrative.

[AnOhioan]

16. The media has a firm hand on the public.

The sheep will follow their lead every time. It is the same for both parties..the media selects the frontrunners and basically refuses to cover all others. If we actually had something approaching fair and equal coverage in this country the election process would be more interesting and draw more people in, can't have that though, it would be "Un-American" :sarcasm:

[Lobster Martini]

6. You can see the Republican attack on Edwards coming already

You will hear two things coming out of the foul mouths of Republican hit men:

1. Requiring employers to contribute to a fund for uninsured workers will hurt small businesses. And maybe family farms. That one has always worked in the past.

2. Edwards wants to raise your taxes! Another tax and spend Democrat! The party that gave you an $8.8 trillion outstanding public debt is the party of fiscal responsibility!

[Solon]

8. Edward's plan would be an unmitigated disaster...

Basically, the government will subsidize the insurance industry, even more so than they do now. This isn't a reasonable plan, just another way for private corporations to rip off the taxpayer.

[Clark2008]

10. Bingo.

[Solon]

11. I think most of our politicians forget that Insurance companies are a big part...

of the problem, not part of the solution. Restrict them legally so they have to cover preexisting conditions and they will raise prices of premiums and treatment just to make up the difference and keep profit margins up. I can't believe so many people actually think keeping the system private will work in the long run. Edward's plan would last, max, 5 years before it has to be dropped because of spiraling costs, same for all the state "experiments" in screwing the sick and poor.

[annabanana]

12. "universal coverage" is a DODGE!

We don't need "universal insurance coverage".. We need Universal Health Care Please don't be fooled into thinking these are one and the same.

"Universal Coverage" schemes are designed to sustain and enrich INSURANCE COMPANIES!! These companies are leaches that suck equity out of the system and degrade everyone's health care. They advertise, are traded publicly and are beholden to the bottom line and their stock holders.

Health care is not a FOR PROFIT enterprise. Any system that tries to make it one will shortchange people forever.

[loyalsister]

17. You nailed it!

Until ordinary people understand that the U.S. has thrown their personal health into the free market so that the collective condition of health disasters can be used as a freakin political football people will die unecessarily.

[IndianaGreen]

14. These are all empty promises!

Unless you stop the GWOT, and bring all the troops home from Iraq, and close all the bases in Iraq, you won't have the money to do anything.