Kerry Says Bush Makes Wrong Choices on Health Care

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New Kaiser Numbers Show Health Care Costs and Country Move in Wrong Direction Under Bush

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0909a.html

Des Moines, IA - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry Thursday held a town hall meeting with undecided voters in Des Moines, IA, where he outlined his plan to strengthen health care after four years of rising costs and wrong choices by George W. Bush.

With today’s numbers from the Kaiser Family Foundation showing that the cost of health care continues to move in the wrong direction as the president sides with HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, Kerry said his plan to make America stronger at home will bring down costs, expand access to affordable, quality care and put the interests of families first.

“Mr. President, it’s wrong to allow skyrocketing health care costs to choke off new jobs, eat up family incomes and leave millions uninsured, living in daily fear and on the brink of medical disaster,” said Kerry. “Raising health care premiums, failing to cut prescription drug costs and choosing big insurance companies over everyday Americans – that’s W. Wrong choices, wrong direction and wrong leadership for America.”

Today’s study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals just how wrong George Bush’s choices have been on health care. According to the study, family health care premiums have increased by more than $3,512 since he took office. Just this last year, family premiums increased $900. The amount families are paying increased by 64 percent from 2000 to 2004.

This increase is the fastest health care premium increase on record.

This record of failure by the president, part of a pattern of him putting special interests over families, is matched with an equally failed record on Medicare. Last week, just hours after telling seniors about the relief they get from his Medicare bill, the president announced a 17 percent premium increase.

“At that convention in New York, the president told us he finally had a plan to cut health care costs,” Kerry said. “Now we know he had something else in mind. The very next day, he socked seniors with a 17 percent increase in Medicare premiums – the biggest increase in the history of the program. That’s wrong.”

In the face of this failure, the president is still choosing to let health care skyrocket out of control. The plans he is proposing in this campaign are not only recycled, unfulfilled and failed promises from four years ago, but would also raise costs on families and businesses and increase the uninsured.

Kerry and John Edwards will set America in a new direction with a plan to build a stronger America at home. Detailed in the Kerry-Edwards book “Our Plan for America: Stronger at Home, Respected in the World,” he has a specific plan to make health care more affordable and ensure quality care.

“John Edwards and I will take this country in a new direction,” Kerry said. “We have a plan to get health care costs under control, to cut the waste and greed out of our health care system and to save the average family up to $1,000 a year on their premiums. When we’re in the White House, America will stop being the only advanced nation in the world which fails to understand that health care is not a privilege for the wealthy, the connected and the elected, it is a right for all Americans.”

To help make health care more affordable for families and employers, the Kerry-Edwards plan will provide up to $1,000 in annual savings for America’s families. It will also give tax credits to small businesses, vulnerable adults and middle-income workers who buy into their new Congressional Health Plan, which will offer the same quality of care that members of Congress receive. Kerry and Edwards will also cut administrative costs by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse from the system and support a series of reforms to get rid of the frivolous lawsuits clogging the health care system.

To help bring down the costs of prescription drugs, Kerry and Edwards will support reimportation of safe, FDA-approved drugs and take steps to allow generic drugs to get to market faster.


Health Premium Increases Fastest on Record: Bush is Leading America in the Wrong Direction- read the fact sheet: http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/pr_2004_0909a.pdf