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Health Care and the Republicans |
Union members are anxiously awaiting Tuesday’s AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum, when seven Democratic candidates who responded to the AFL-CIO questionnaire will make their case to working families at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Meanwhile, in Iowa, 10 Republicans gathered for a Sunday morning debate. The most striking revelation? All 10 Republicans said they opposed the Senate’s recent vote for expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Every Democratic candidate talks about expanding health care access—yet every one of these 10 Republicans is talking about reducing government’s role in providing coverage. As former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) debate about which of them can best move the country toward universal coverage, the Republican candidates spent nearly all of their time in this debate advocating a smaller federal role, leaving coverage to the market and to private insurers.
The issue emerged when Iowa political reporter David Yepsen posed a challenging question about the SCHIP bill. The expansion passed overwhelmingly and with bipartisan support in the Senate, yet faces a veto threat from President Bush. “Who do you side with?” Yespen asked former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.).
Huckabee didn’t address the challenge directly, but he responded, “Either give every American the same kind of health care that Congress has, or make Congress have the same kind of health care that every American has.” He went on to talk about how the focus on intervening in catastrophic circumstances, rather than prevention, makes health care too expensive. Shifting health care dollars from caring for sickness to encouraging wellness is “the single most urgent thing that has to be done.” former Gov. Tommy Thompson (Wis.) agreed with the idea of focusing on prevention.
Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo took a different approach, saying “It’s not the responsibility of the federal government…it’s unhealthy to have a government health care plan in America.”
Huckabee and Thompson both acknowledged that they opposed the Senate’s SCHIP expansion bill. Moderator George Stephanopoulos challenged former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.) to answer the same question.
Romney’s answer was interesting because of his work in Massachusetts, where he endorsed a plan to require citizens to purchase private-sector insurance. “It’s critical to insure more people in this country,” Romney said. “It doesn’t make sense to have 45 million people uninsured…we have to have our citizens insured, and we’re not going to do that by tax exemptions.” He pointed to the Massachusetts plan as the best solution.
Giuliani said he would have opposed the SCHIP bill because it would move too many people toward government-funded health care. Giuliani has been adamant in his insistence that the government is too involved in health care and that it’s a matter for patients and private insurers to deal with in the market. His answer at this debate reaffirmed that.
In short, on the issue of health care, the two parties are having two very different conversations.
For more thoughts on the GOP debate, check out Josh Marshall, Chris Cillizza and Steve Benen.
The AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum, with “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann as moderator, begins at 7 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. CDT). It will be broadcast on MSNBC and XM Radio.
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Republicans are out of touch with America. They are obsessed with the private sector. The private sector has it’s place but so does the public sector.
Few would argue that Coffe Shops, Pizzerias, Department Store, Car Dealerships, Construction Companies, etc. belong in the private sector. Like wise few would argue that our Military , Schools, Police and Fire Departments should be fundeded by and the responsibility of Government and it’s various agencies.
Having a Free not for profit Universal Health Care system for all Americans should also be the responsibility of government.
When you remove the profit motive from such a necessary service, you will reduce the cost and improve the quality of health care for all. Access to Quality Health care should be a right for All not a privilege for the Wealthy.
Congress passed the biggest expansion of health care in 40 years, guaranteeing health care to millions of uninsured children. But I believe we can do far better than this.
I would like to share my plan for Health Care Reform. I see a viable means for a federal health care program for all citizens that includes financial incentives for individual health care practitioners as well as HMOs.
We have to first acknowledge that the health, safety and welfare of the people represent the soundness of this nation. Secondly that Capitalism has to serve Democracy, and not Democracy serve Capitalism. And that the government’s only legitimate purpose is to serve the people
Today’s private sector health care is complicated, expensive, and only provides diminishing returns for its stated purpose.
I question why the current administration has been indifferent, in my opinion to the health care crisis; and why prescription drug coverage has to be so costly? I believe that the government has not acted on lessons learned from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. I also question why Election 2008 Candidates are fuzzy about this, or propose to pay for it by raising taxes when we are all due, individually, to have an additional 50,000 tax burden in 2014.
I believe the government can lead health care innovations in order to benefit the people, and the private sector will follow in order to take advantage of the resulting business opportunities. When the private sector leads, the focus on business profits causes diminishing quality of service. My concern is that health care costs will continue to rise while private health care offers less and less benefit to the public.
For these reasons, I propose the ‘People’s Health Care Plan.’ It consists of a Federal universal health care program that leaves opportunity for the private sector to compete with fair additional offerings. Additionally, ‘For the Good’ community service based health care should be created for preventative health care. This is outlined as follows:
1- The Federal Care program would afford fixed health care infrastructure costs, make services available when needed by all U.S. Citizens, and cover health treatments and remedies adequately up to 100% with quality service.
This is to include but not be limited to chronic care, emergencies, restorative health, post operative recovery treatments, and generic prescription programs. There are no deductibles and no loss of coverage when in between jobs, when economically disadvantaged or when in retirement.
The Federal Health Care Plan is to be funded by moving Medicare/Medicaid into a people’s health care general fund. and by replacing normal employer/employee health care insurance plans with a monthly contribution to the people’s health care general fund that is about half of what is normally paid to insurance companies. I believe that this alone as not being profit based can address basic quality coverage.
Additionally the Federal Care program is to be galvanized by funding from fully tax exempt health care bonds. These tax exempt bonds will become actively traded in the financial markets. They will also allow the public to make tax exempt investments.
In addition to having a robust health care fund, this also provides coverage of natural disasters like hurricane Katrina, for first responders when in a state of emergency, the public if when under a terrorist attack and epidemics which at this point are not being competently embraced by the government.
2- ‘For the Good’ community based offerings are to address the economically disadvantaged with a focus on preventative health care. Health practitioners may receive tax benefits based on community service quotas and level of service.
3- The Private Sector is welcome to operate honestly by offering competitive alternatives, add-ons for such things as elective surgery and post operative care, and additional services that they feel could interest consumers.
Orion Karl Daley
Presidential Candidate for 2008
for the Strategic Future of our nation
Balanced Party http://unity2008.org
New York, NY, USA -
You’ve been blogged!
I just wanted to let you know you were written about on the Health Care Reform Now! blog, a companion to the new book by George Halvorson:
http://healthcarereformnow.blogspot.com/2007/08/labor-unions-get-behind-health-care.html