Sioux City Journal: Kerry stresses need to extend health care

[DJcairo]

By Charlotte Eby, Journal Des Moines Bureau

WATERLOO, Iowa -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry joined Sen. Edward Kennedy at a Waterloo church Saturday to underscore the need for extending health care to uninsured Americans.
A crowd of about 300 came to see the two Massachusetts senators at Payne Memorial A.M.E. Church for the launch of Kerry's Iowa "barnstorming tour," which kicks off a week of campaign meetings in all 99 Iowa counties.
Kerry talked to the crowd about his own battle with prostate cancer, saying that unlike many other Americans, he got care from the best doctors because he is a U.S. senator and he could afford it.
"I woke up in that hospital bed determined that every single American deserves as a matter of right, not a privilege, to have health care in the United States of America," Kerry said.
Kerry is proposing a repeal of the Bush-era tax cuts for Americans in the top tax brackets in order to pay for a health care system that would cover more Americans and bring down the cost of premiums for those who already are insured.
"I think I know what Americans are going to choose. They're going to take health care over those cuts," Kerry said.
Under Kerry's plan, the federal government would pay for 75 percent of the cost of insurance claims over $50,000, claims that drive up the cost of insurance premiums for all those with health care plans.
Those who don't get health insurance from their employers would be able under Kerry's plan to buy into the same insurance program that is available to members of Congress, with tax cuts to make it affordable.
Kennedy, who joined Kerry on a daylong campaign swing to the state, reminisced about his family's four decades of ties to Iowa politics.
He said Iowa Democrats have had good judgment in supporting brothers John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in their presidential campaigns, although Iowa voters passed him over in the 1980 caucuses for then-President Jimmy Carter.
"I say, if only you go out and support John Kerry in the caucuses, all is forgiven," Kennedy joked.
Kennedy's son, Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, will be in Waterloo today to stump for Kerry's rival, Rep. Dick Gephardt.
Kerry said he has been greeted by "huge crowds" during his Iowa trip this weekend and the trip has left him optimistic about his chances in Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on Jan. 19.
Kerry pointed to a poll released by the presidential campaign of Sen. John Edwards that showed Kerry in second place in Iowa, just one point behind front-runner Howard Dean and ahead of Gephardt. Other Iowa polls have shown him solidly in the top three with Dean and Gephardt.
Kerry said he's not concerned the media spotlight settled on retired Gen. Wesley Clark earlier this month after Clark became the 10th Democrat to join the presidential race.
"It will turn. I'm not worried about it. I have more national security experience, and I certainly have more experience with the domestic issues, and I think that will break through. I'm very confident about it," Kerry said.

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2003/09/28/news/regional/7249fd410e400b9f86256daf0010258a.txt

[loyalsister]

1. If he was so convinced

"I woke up in that hospital bed determined that every single American deserves as a matter of right, not a privilege, to have health care in the United States of America," Kerry said.

Why hasn't he been sponsoring legislation to that effect since that day?