Edwards Stands Out On Health Care Debate (The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 03/24/2007 @ 8:54pm
Edwards Stands Out On Health Care Debate
Marc Cooper


Las Vegas

Seven of the Democratic presidential contenders spent all of Saturday morning talking about their health care policies at an union organized forum at UNLV; and while they vowed to provide universal coverage if elected, only John Edwards presented a plan with any significant details.

"One of the reasons that I want to be president of the United States is to make sure that every woman and every person in America gets the same things that we have," Edwards said referring to the announcement last week that his wife Elizabeth will be in cancer treatment the rest of her life.

Edwards was also the only candidate who said that, without doubt, taxes would have to be raised to be pay for the $90-120 billion price tag on his plan for universal coverage. Anybody saying otherwise, he said, is likely trying to sell the voters the "Brooklyn Bridge." Senator Barack Obama ☼ didn't rule out raising taxes, saying he would do "whatever it takes" to get universal coverage by the end of his first term but wasn't specific.

Edwards' plan, first unveiled earlier this year, calls for an expansion of both public and private health plans, forces employers to either provide health care or pay into a fund that does, mandates individuals to buy insurance and offers government subsidies for families with incomes of up to $80k who can't afford it.

Hillary Clinton also made a spirited presentation to the hundreds of audience members brought in by forum co-sponsor, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), but she was more vague in how she would achieve universal coverage. She put her emphasis instead on ending the "discrimination" exercised by insurance companies when they exclude or disenroll policyholders. "Every health insurance company will have to insure everybody with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions," she said. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=179039

[jobycom]

1. I've now heard three different opinions on the "winner" at this forum.

This afternoon I heard that Clinton's was the most complete and best, earlier this evening I saw a post saying Kucinich's was (his, I believe, was the only Canadian-style system), and now Edwards. Guess I'll have to do some genuine reading and make up my own mind.

[Cleita]

4. You can start at this website.

http://www.pnhp.org.

This is a group of Harvard doctors who have come up with the most well researched and viable plan that I have come across. Kucinich's plan is like theirs.

[snowbear]

6. Ahhh, the fun of primary season on DU !!

I didn't watch it, but I saw about three different "declared winners" announced on here too joby..

I was watching MSNBC just as they said it had wrapped up, and the reporter who went there told Contessa Brewer that she felt Edwards had the most detailed and extensive plan out of all of them.

Then I logged on here, and it was primary season in full DU mode!!

~~ Gotta love DU during the primaries though!

[1932]

11. Do you think Marc Cooper is trustworthy and informed?

[Cleita]

2. Universal health care that isn't single payer doesn't solve the

problem and will be too costly. Too bad Edwards and the others don't get it. Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who knows that meaningful health insurance for all cuts out the middle man, the private insurers and HMO's.

[kath]

5. Exactly - mandating that everyone buy insurance is utter, total bullshit. The insurance companies

need to be ELIMINATED from our healthcare system. They are bloodsucking parasites that contribute NOTHING of value - all they do is suck HUGE amounts of money out of the system, approximately 1 out of every 3 dollars.

SINGLE PAYER is the only way to go - same as what virtually every other 1st-world nation has.

[Cleita]

19. Yes, but if people don't get the information first hand they will be

cuckolded into another disastrous plan like the Medicare prescription benefit that lards the PHARMA industry at the expense of our treasury and our senior citizens. I am not voting in the primary for any candidate that backs this kind of plan and right now it means all of them with the exception of Dennis Kucinich.

[AshevilleGuy]

7. I want single payer as well, but I remember what happened

in 1993 when the Clintons presented their heathcare plan, one that would have theoretically gotten everyone covered, but keeping the insurance companies: the companies didn't like it, and got their dogs out. The odious Senator Phil Gramm of TX (who was in the companies' pockets) demagogued the plan to death, saying that "Amurica has the best healthcare system in the world, and the Dems want to turn it into a rationed system, etc, etc... "

All total bullshit but he managed to scare the shit out of the masses, who reacted almost violently to the Clinton plan, even though it would have helped many of them. And of course the plan went away, even though it was well received before the repukes attacked it.

My point is that it would probably be impossible to get a single payer plan passed in Congress, because the same attacks would come out of the woodwork, and they would work again. The main line would be, "And the Dems want to take YOUR insurance away from you and raise taxes too!. They would fall for it; we would fight the big battle and get nothing.

[Cleita]

18. Truthfully, the Clinton plan had a major flaw by including the

insurance companies. They, on the other hand, wanted the whole enchilada, like they have now, with the exception of those people who actually really need health care, like the elderly, and those suffering from progressive debilitating diseases like diabetes and renal failure.

They need to be gone and including them will only result in another Clinton failure. They are not in the business of delivering health care but of collecting premiums for health care. They have to go if we are going to get a meaningful comprehensive health plan that covers everyone.

Don't worry about the insurance companies, they will always find another field to fleece for premiums.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. Clinton did not propose single payer UHC

Instead it was a ridiculous over complicated system of public/private services that as usual kept the gravy train rolling for Big HealthCo.

[Hieronymus]

24. I agree .. get rid of insurance companies .. big lobby there though.

[antigop]

3. Marie Cocco: Edwards' Flawed Health Care Plan

http://postwritersgroup.com/archives/cocc0208.html

>>
Edwards wants congratulations for being the first serious presidential candidate to offer a comprehensive idea for universal health insurance coverage, something every Democratic aspirant is bound to do eventually. Edwards is a smart man and a cunning politician. But his health insurance plan suffers from an odd combination of ailments.

One is political amnesia. This Clinton-like plan that would have both individuals and employers buy into closely regulated health insurance pools failed more than a decade ago -- in part because it was so complicated as to be incomprehensible. Another is timidity. Edwards won't acknowledge that the current system of private insurance is irreparably broken.

It has failed to expand coverage to millions of workers who are employed by small business, or who work part time, or who toil at low wages -- companies with high proportions of low-wage workers are far less likely to offer insurance than those whose employees earn more, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Since 2000, the portion of businesses that offer any insurance to even part of their work force has fallen from 69 percent to 61 percent.

Over the past year, a solid majority of those who do have coverage -- 60 percent -- experienced an increase in the amount they are responsible for paying under their plan, the Employee Benefit Research Institute says. Almost a third of covered workers reported difficulty in paying for basic necessities such as food, heat and housing because of rising health-care costs.

This isn't much of a foundation upon which to construct a new system. In the years since Clinton tried to build on this inhospitable terrain, the ground has eroded further. It makes no sense to try to shore it up with an awkward hybrid of public requirements and private insurance that would keep in place unnecessary complexity and bureaucratic expense.
>>

[1932]

10. She's says the solution is to expand Medicare so that everyone is covered.

Clinton's plan in the early '90s didn't fail because it wasn't ambitious enough. It failed because insurance companies didn't want anything to threaten their profits.

This problem has only gotten worse -- insurance companies are even more powerful now. How does Cocco think that her idea could get more traction now if Clinton's plan couldn't get traction 15 years ago?

Yeah, the world would be a perfect place if the world were a perfect place. But how are we going to get there? It's not going to happen overnight.

Medicare isn't going to totally eliminate the health insurance industry overnight, no matter how much courage politicians have. (And a lot of politicians are showing great courage by coming up with strategies that are going to work over a time frame longer than overnight.)

[antigop]

16. "Insurance companies are even more powerful now..."

And more people are connected via the Internet now... and they can learn the truth.

So how many people have you e-mailed with info on HR 676?

Just curious....

[ProudDad]

8. This "plan" SUCKS just as bad as the GroppenSteroidenFuhrer's

Any "plan" that MANDATES individuals to buy "insurance" is blowing it out their ASS.

That's what the arnold is trying to do here in California...CRIMINALIZE anyone who can't afford a "basic health insurance" plan that doesn't provide SHIT for coverage.

We ALREADY HAVE single-payer health care in this country and we only have to extend it to everyone...it's called Medicare and it works pretty god damn well with a 3% overhead.

Get the FUCKING insurance companies OUT OF THE MIX!!!! Anything less is pissing into a gale-force headwind...

Anything less than HR676 is a CRIMINAL OFFENSE!!!

[GreenArrow]

17. yes, "mandate" is the key phrase.

Methinks he has it backwards; rather than citizens being forced by the government to purchase a health care program, the government should mandate that everyone has affordable and accessible health care -- not health insurance, which it could do rather easily.

This program seems to be gaining traction for some reason (the "soft bigotry of low expectations?") but it's excessively weasely and insulting, given that it tries to have things both ways, and does not even touch upon the parasitic health for a profit nature of the insurance industry.

No mandated insurance, please.

[NCarolinawoman]

20. Can we find out which candidates have received money from insurance companies?

I was just wondering about this since these big tallies of fund-raising prowess will be coming up soon.

I don't want to here how much money a candidate raised. I want to know where they got there money from.

[ProudDad]

9. Edwards the best of a bad bunch

is damning with faint praise...

[Colobo]

21. Bad bunch?

We have an excellent bunch.

[snowbear]

23. Yeah, really..

Bad bunch?

I think we happen to have a pretty good bunch too.

..

[AshevilleGuy]

12. All this hinges on the makeup of the 2009 Congress.

A president can not impose a healthcare plan on the country - Congress has to pass it. Looking back on what happened to the Clinton plan in 1993, it should be obvious that we need effective control of BOTH Houses of Congress, or it ain't gonna happen; the insurance companies are just too powerful, and they have many senators and congresspersons by the short hairs, as it is.

We will need NOT ONLY a Dem President, but SIXTY reliable Senators (this obviously does not count Pryor and Nelson), and we also will need more Dems in the House. Now, you can disregard this, but you will see -this will be an unbelievably hard fight and the insurance companies and their lobbyists will stop at nothing to survive. It will make 1993 look like the proverbial day at the beach.

[Clarkie1]

13. You are right.

It's going to take all Democrats working together for all candidates in 08, not just the President. And of course, a candidate with long coattails that can appeal across party lines would certainly help in that effort.

That's what we should be thinking about.

[ProudDad]

14. Fuck You, Marc Cooper!

"Kucinich, as he did a month ago when the Democratic candidates met in a Carson City forum, chided all of his competitors for not having sufficient courage and clammed them for not directly confronting insurance companies and for not proposing a single-payer system in which the government would underwrite all health care. He offered no details on how the system would work or how it would be financed."

Bullshit!!!

Dennis IS A CO-SPONSER of HR676. You can read the whole damn plan (and it's a HELL of a good one) right here, you dumb fuck Cooper:

The Whole Thing:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-676

The Summary:

http://www.pnhp.org/publications/executive_summary_of_the_united_states_national_health_insurance_act_hr676.php


Et Tu Nation?



From the Summary

"In its first year, single-payer will save over $150 billion on paperwork and $50 billion by using rational bulk purchasing of medications. These savings are more than enough to cover all the uninsured, improve coverage for everyone else, including medication coverage and long-term care.

Employers who currently provide coverage for their employees pay an average of 8.5% of payroll towards health coverage, while many employers can’t afford to provide coverage at all. Under this Act, all employers will pay a modest 3.3% payroll tax per employee, while eliminating their payments towards private health plans. The average cost to an employer for an employee earning $35,000 per year will be reduced to $1,155, less than $100 per month.

95% of families will pay less for health care under national health insurance than they do today. Seniors and younger people will all have the comprehensive medication coverage they need."


I think HR676 is probably one of the best kept secrets in America...

[antigop]

15. Yes, HR676 is one of the "best kept secrets"

That's why we HAVE TO BECOME the media.

Send info on HR676 to everyone on your e-mail list.

Write letters to the editor.

GET THE WORD OUT! (caps for emphasis, not shouting)

[Czolgosz]

25. I love Dennis Kucinich, but I believe John Edwards's health care plan is superior

because it creates a model for a transition to single payer universal health care. The Edwards health care plan creates a government run insurer to compete directly against a much better regulates private sector. This preserves choice in health care which is what killed Hillary's valiant effort at health care reform during Bill's first term. If we are all correct about the increased efficiency of a single payer system (and I am convinced we are correct), the private insurers will have to get 1,000 times better than they are or they will never be able to compete.

For more details:

http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/health-care-overview.pdf

P.S. I wish we could pass the Kucinich plan, but I believe if we could pass it, it would already be on the table but it just isn't winning any traction.