Leading Democratic Presidential Candidates Agree That U.S. Residents Should Be Able To Buy Into Government-Run Health Plan Modeled After Medicare
Such a system, "which would set up a competition between a new government plan and private insurance programs," is "one of the most far-reaching and controversial proposals for making health insurance more affordable and more widely available," the Times reports. "Of all the states that are considering [reforms], none have set up a public plan to compete with private plans," according to former CMS Administrator Mark McClellan.
"It's generally assumed that the government plan would cost less than many of the private options," but "it's not clear whether that would necessarily give it an advantage," the Times reports. Some have raised concerns that a government plan could become a "dumping ground for the most seriously ill -- and expensive -- patients," as private plans "cherry pick those least likely to file large claims," according to the Times. Others have suggested that the government plan could underbid, and later replace, private plans.
However, some experts believe "giving people the option of joining a government plan might make for a sensible experiment," the Times reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, 1/21).
C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" on Monday included a discussion with Marilyn Werber Serafini, a staff correspondent for National Journal, about health care proposals from the candidates ("Washington Journal," C-SPAN, 1/21). Video of the segment is available online. Nevada Caucuses, South Carolina GOP Primary
Clinton on Saturday won the Nevada Democratic presidential caucus with 51% of the vote, followed by Obama with 45% and Edwards with 4%, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the state Republican caucus with 51% of the vote, followed by Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) with 14% and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) with 13%, CNN.com reports (CNN.com, 1/22). Entrance polls found that Democratic voters who cited health care as the issue most important to them favored Clinton. The polls, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, included responses from 1,098 Democratic voters and 833 Republican voters (AP/St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1/20). The exit polls for Republican voters did not include health care as a choice for most important issue (CBSNews.com, 1/22).
In addition, McCain on Saturday won the South Carolina Republican primary with 33% of the vote, followed by 30% for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 16% for former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and 15% for Romney (CNN.com). Democratic Debate
The three major Democratic presidential candidates on Monday during a debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., discussed health care and other issues, the Columbia State reports.
During the debate, Clinton and Edwards criticized Obama because his health care proposal would not require all U.S. residents to obtain health insurance. Clinton said, "If you don't start out trying to get universal health care, you'll never get there," adding, "The whole idea of universal health care is such a core Democratic principle that I am willing to go to the mat for it." In response, Obama said that his proposal seeks to ensure residents can afford health insurance, adding that enforcing such a mandate "may mean taking money out of people's paychecks" (O'Connor, Columbia State, 1/22).
Clinton also said that Obama "basically did the bidding of health insurance companies" during his tenure in the Illinois Legislature.
Edwards said that Clinton and Obama should focus on important issues, such as health care, rather than attacks on each other. He said, "I also want to know on behalf of voters in South Carolina, how many children are going to get health care because of this? We have got to understand that this is not about us personally" (Seattle Times, 1/22).
Health care-related video excerpts and a transcript from the debate are available online at health08.org.
NPR's "Morning Edition" on Tuesday reported on the debate and included comments from the candidates on health care. The segment includes comments from Obama, Clinton and Edwards (Cornish, "Morning Edition," NPR, 1/22). Audio of the segment is available online. Opinion Piece
McCain during a recent presidential debate in New Hampshire said that he supports prescription drug reimportation from Canada, a proposal that "amounts to importing Canada's price controls, a large step toward a system in which some medicines would be inexpensive but many others -- new pain-relieving, life-extending pharmaceuticals -- would be unavailable," columnist George Will writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. Will writes, "Setting drug prices by government fiat rather than market forces results in huge reductions of funding for research and development of new drugs."
According to Will, "McCain's evident aim is to reduce pharmaceutical companies' profits," but "if all those profits were subtracted from the nation's health care bill, the pharmaceutical component of that bill would be reduced only from 10% to 8% -- and innovation would stop, taking a terrible toll in unnecessary suffering and premature death." He adds, "Republicans are supposed to eschew demagogic aspersions concerning complicated economic matters," but "applause greets faux 'straight talk' that brands as 'bad' the industry responsible for the facts that polio is no longer a scourge, that childhood leukemia is no longer a death sentence, that depression and other mental illnesses are treatable diseases, that the rate of heart attacks and heart failures has been cut by more than half in 50 years" (Will, Washington Post, 1/20).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Leading democratice candidaþi la preºedinþie de acord cu faptul cã SUA rezidenþi trebuie sã aibã posibilitatea de a cumpãra în guvern-Executare de sãnãtate planul de modelat dupã Medicare - Leading Democratic Presidential Candidates Agree That U.S. Residents Should Be Able To Buy Into Government-Run Health Plan Modeled After Medicare - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate