Kerry talks health care in two battleground states

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/14/politics1418EST0516.DTL

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, arguing that voters "are hungry for a real discussion," promoted a health care plan that he said would save consumers $1,000 each as he focused attention Sunday on a pair of important Rust Belt states that have been battered by the steady drain of manufacturing jobs.

The Massachusetts senator said the swing was the opening salvo in his effort to focus the contentious presidential campaign on issues that matter to voters, like health care and jobs.

"Americans struggling to pay health care don't need misleading attacks, they need meaningful answers," Kerry said at a town meeting, where he heard from workers who lost health care coverage along with their jobs. "They didn't just lose their livelihoods, they lost the health care they depend on."

Kerry said the health care crisis has worsened under President Bush, with more than 1 million people a year losing coverage at a time when average health insurance premiums have increased by $793.

more

[acmavm]

1. Kerry is pulling no punches, afraid to go nowhere and speak, and

telling the truth about the conditions that the bush* gang have inflicted on our poor country. Way to go, Senator Kerry.

[RainBoy]

2. How the hell does he plan on paying for this?

Health care would be a wonderful thing but honestly, how will this be paid for? We can increase taxes on the rich but millions without health insurance times $793 in premiums per family? Not without increasing taxes on more than just the rich. I mean, there aren't that many rich people out there.

Oregon tried to pass universal health care estimated to cost about $19 billion which is about the same as their entire state budget. That would have made required tax revenue $38 billion. It would be rather naive to believe that the rich can pay for something like this.

I want to know more about How we are going to budget for this with record deficits. I don't mean to be so critical but we have to think about things like this. I am and I know millions of other voters are too. Kerry, We need to understand a trend regarding raising taxes lately. Voters are not voting for tax increases. Alabama voters rejected tax increases, Oregan voters rejected tax increases, Seattle voters (heavily Democratic) rejected a selective coffee tax even, and California voters passed a balanced budget amendment and rejected a proposition that would have lowered the threshhold in the state assembly from 2/3 majority to 55% to raise taxes. There are many other examples of this.

It would be a HUGE mistake for Kerry to propose costly social programs now while condemning Emperor Bushhole for his massive deficits. the G(r)OPers will eat us up for lunch for this hypocrisy in a time when people are not supporting tax increases.

Clinton was a genius for his charisma in selling tax increases with expressions like "invest in america" and "contributing to the future" but Kerry has totally lacked this charisma.

I'm just afraid of Kerry screwing up and losing because We/he fails to see this.

[SharonAnn]

3. MMm, I love the "Ignore" feature.

You're Ignored!

[NNN0LHI]

4. Hi RainBoy. Welcome to DU. I don't have the answers to all your questions

I never worry myself with the little details of how I am going to pay for something. :)

All kidding aside I am sure this subject will come up during the next 8 months and we will get some answers. Only time will tell though. And time we have plenty of.

Don

[sybylla]

5. I personally think this is one issue Kerry can't be weaker on.

I own my own business and have to buy my own family health insurance. That is, as long as they continue to cover me. I expect some time in the next 10 years to be refused coverage and don't know what I will do then.

I don't have a cadillac health insurance plan and I pay over $6000 a year My policy cost has increased 30%-45% per year for the past 3 years. Saving me $1000 doesn't even cover the increases and does nothing to guarantee me coverage. And with the local clinic/hospital increasing their prices exponentially, each visit cost me more (big deductible). I rarely go to the doctor anymore. My husband has never gone and probably won't until he is so sick he can't stand it any longer. Our current system of funding health care is failing millions of Americans and causing many more millions to adopt unhealthy lifestyles.

And all John Kerry wants to do about it is give us $1000 dollars and an opportunity to get a really good health insurance plan. Doesn't sound like he's really thought much about health care if you ask me.

[bain_sidhe]

6. We're already paying for it.

Actually, we're *paying* for universal care. We're just not getting it. When uninsured people go to the emergency room, they get treated, right? How does the hospital recover that cost? They do it by tacking the cost of the unpaid care onto the cost of the paid care. In simplistic terms, if they give out three aspirins, but only get paid for two, you can bet that what they charge for those two equals the cost of the three they gave out.

But, there's even more to it than that. The cost of emergency room care - when the problem is, indeed, an emergency - is FAR GREATER than the cost of treating that illness BEFORE it becomes an emergency.

My point is, if you distributed ALL the money paid for health care, through both the actual costs billed and the insurance premiums for the coverage, there's enough for everybody to get treated. We just have to be more efficient about how we distribute the cost. The best way to do that is to have single payer health care. IMHO, that is.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Let's see....how about part of the $87 billion being sent to Iraq?...

How about 10% of the record defense budget funding such excellent anti-terror systems like Star Wars?

How about getting the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, countries which should never have been attacked in the first place, and saving billions of dollars per year?

How about restoring taxes on the wealthy?

How about the hundreds of millions of dollars being paid to companies like Halliburton who routinely overcharge for their services?

I could go on, but I grow tired of pointing out the obvious to posters that I ought to put on ignore.

[revcarol]

9. But he doesn't WANT to reduce the "defense" budget much,Media_

Lies_Daily!!

And he doesn't WANT to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan!! He wants to continue the occupation war!!

He DOES want to restore taxes on the wealthy, but what OTHER programs will this go to finance, or will it go to reduce the annual deficit and NOTHING more be available?

CONGRESS has given Halliburton an exclusive no-bid contract for doing things like building bases like Uzbekistan, 4 permanent bases in Iraq, bases and support service to troops all over the world. Just HOW will the troops be supported if we do away with Halliburton services. All those military that used to do those things have been privatized.CONGRESS would have to withdraw the contracts and then get others to do those things.

Your slamming of the other poster for legitimate questions just shows the bankruptcy of Kerry's health plan, IMHO. We would still have to BUY a commercial insurance plan with $1000 tax credit at the end of the year.:wtf:And 30-35% of the money would be WASTED on administration, high pay and bonuses for execs, denying or delaying care, etc.

[RainBoy]

10. aren't you forgetting...

that the bushhole war is paid for with deficits. If Kerry and the Dems want to nail bushhole for spending us $500 billion in deficits and raising the national debt to an incredible $7 trillion then the Dems shouldn't be proposing new spending that would require massive tax increases or deficit spending.

The $87 billion bushless spent in iraq was paid for with deficits.

[RedSock]

8. build a few less bombs

and tax corporations higher than 1%.

viola! instant money!!

next question ..................?