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Health Care Reform Sparks Lively Debate Among Democratic Candidates
The eight Democratic hopefuls running for the 2008 presidential nomination met for a debate in Manchester, N.H., on Sunday. The debate took place as part of the annual convention for the New Hampshire Democratic Party and marks the first debate in the state among all the hopefuls.
The debated included substantive discussion and highlighted some different approaches to key working family issues. Ezra Klein called it “by far the best primary debate I’ve seen.” The Manchester Union-Leader noted that while the range of topics was wide, the war in Iraq was at the forefront of discussion. While Iraq generated the most discussion, candidates also touched on energy, terrorism, diplomacy and the top priorities of their first 100 days in office.
But among domestic issues, health care reform topped the debate. The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber noted, in particular, that John Edwards and Barack Obama had a “refreshingly useful back-and-forth” on health care.
Edwards and Obama both have released detailed health care proposals. The primary difference is that Edwards’ plan includes an individual mandate, requiring health insurance for all. Obama’s plan does not. In last night’s debate, Edwards praised Obama for announcing a detailed, specific plan, but contended that mandates are necessary to lower costs and guarantee coverage for all. Obama replied that there were positive elements in Edwards’ plan, but that mandates were unnecessary if reform focused on reducing costs and keeping checks on insurance companies and drug companies. He also noted that children under 5 years would have mandatory coverage in his plan. A video of this exchange is available here.
Hillary Clinton, who undertook a major health care reform effort as First Lady in 1994, noted that there were significant overlaps in both candidates’ health care strategies, and that the focus on health care was a positive development. She added a valuable comment on the difficulty of reform. As quoted in the Washington Post:
You’ve got to have the political will — a broad coalition of business and labor, doctors, nurses, hospitals—everybody standing firm when the inevitable attacks come from the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies that don’t want to change the system because they make so much money out of it.
Clearly, the leading Democratic candidates understand that health coverage is at the forefront of working families’ minds in this election. To their credit, they are making health care a priority, and they’re engaging each other on their different approaches.
More information about Democratic candidates’ positions on health care is available at Working Families Vote 2008.
Each candidate was asked what their priorities would be in the first 100 days of their administration. Here are their responses:
Biden: End the war in Iraq, deal with Iran and North Korea.
Clinton: Bring U.S. troops home from Iraq.
Dodd: Restore constitutional rights.
Edwards: Travel the world for diplomatic outreach.
Gravel: Work with Congress to end the war in Iraq.
Kucinich: Work for global peace and nuclear disarmament.
Obama: Bring troops home from Iraq, work for health care reform.
Richardson: Improve public schools and raise teacher salaries.
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3 Comments
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Hillary Clinton is responsible for setting back the cause of health care reform by a decade. She cannot be trusted.
Why only quote the corporate funded frontrunners or pretend that only candidates who are raising millions of dollars from the enemies of the working class deserve mention? Only Dennis Kucinich offered any substance on health care, promoting single payer and HR 676, which some unions actually favor. I’ll save my vote for Nader or an independent labor party candidate before backing yet another millionaire Democrat who talks a good line but spends $400 on a f#$$k;;g haircut!!
Hilliary Clinton does not deserve the support of organized labor or working people. She she supports the interests of those who have given her $50 million already for her campaign: Rupert Murdock, etc. The labor movement must break away from the Democratic Party and create a new national party the speaks to the interest of all working people.
Such a platform should look like this:
1. Stop the war in Iraq and around the world. Stop the privatization of the militiary, the CIA, etc. IT IS BANKRUPTING ALL OTHER SOCIAL SERVICES ESSENTIAL TO SUSTAIN A MINIMAL STANDARD OF LIVING. Close nearly all of the 700 HUNDRED MILITARY BASES AROUND THE WORLD. RE-WRITE NAFTA AND CAFTA TREATIES TO STOP THE MASS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION THAT IS DESTROYING THE ECONOMIC STANDARDS F0R ALL WORKING PEOPLE.
2. STOP ALL LEVELS OF PRIVATIZATION. The people desperately need univarsal health care, free public education, affordable housing, and “living wage” jobs. Stop the importatation of college graduates from India, etc. that are being imported to undercut the wages of trained and experience working people in this country.
3. Massive transfer from oil and nuclear power to sustainable energy.
4. NATIONALIZE INDUSTRIES THAT GO BANKRUPT TO GET RID OF WORKERS. NATIONALIZE AUTO, ENERGY (oil and nuclear).
5. Ultimately the labor movement must realize this fundamental fact of life:
U.S. capitalism has been in decline in U.S. for 30 years. The labor movement must understand the consequences of this to standard of living, to the attack on social services, to the pursuit of war for oil, of the military-industrial complex which are destroying this country.
There is one, and only one health care proposal that makes sense. The only presidential candidate that has endorsed it is Dennis Kucinich. The bill is HR 676 (Conyers, D-MI) and is co-sponsored by over 70 Democrats in the House. For additional information go to Healthcare-NOW.org or UFHC.org.