Edwards Challenges Obama and Clinton, Richardson Surprises at Health Care Debate

This article is a summary of the positions taken by the Democratic presidential candidates at the "New Leadership On Health Care" presidential forum hosted by The Center for American Progress and Service Employees International Union in Las Vegas on March 24 as recorded in the mainstream press and Campaign for America's Future blog. Special credit goes to Isaiah Poole and Bill Scher. Roger Hickey of CAF has written an overview of how the candidates performed overall.

John Edwards:

Former Senator John Edwards kicked off the presidential forum by laying out his previously announced plan. He stressed that his plan "covers all Americans" through "shared responsibilities." He noted that "employers are required to either cover their employees or to pay into a fund" that will provide coverage.

And regarding our government's role, John Edwards said:

"Government plays an important role, [setting] up health care markets all across America. And in each of those markets, if you’re the consumer, you can go in and choose what your health care plan will be. Some of the choices are private insurers. And then one choice is a government plan, basically a Medicare-plus plan. The idea is to determine whether Americans actually want a private insurer, or whether they’d rather have a government-run, Medicare-plus kind of single-payer plan. And we’ll find out over time which way people go."

He also emphasized cost containment. In response to a small businessman struggling with high costs, Edwards responded that through mandatory preventative care coverage, and competition between private insurers and government plans that have "extraordinarily low" administrative costs, those costs would "dramatically" drop.

But he did not flinch at addressing the "transitional" costs to a new system, saying it would cost $90 to $120 billion a year, which he would pay for by rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for those making more than $200,000.

(by Bill Scher)

Also, according to CNN:

Edwards pressed to provide a detailed plan to cover the nation's uninsured -- estimated at about 47 million -- and describe how they will pay for it. His chief competitors, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, did not rule out the possibility that they would follow his lead with a plan requiring a tax increase, but they provided no specifics.

"I have not foreclosed the possibility that we might need additional revenue in order to achieve my goal, but we shouldn't underestimate the amount of money that can be saved in the existing system," Obama said when asked whether he would raise taxes to reach his goal of universal coverage by the end of his first term."I can tell you I will do whatever it takes," the Illinois senator added.

Clinton did not say whether or not she is considering a tax increase, but said she cannot see putting more money into what she described as the current broken system.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich used the forum to continue his vigorous pitch for a single-payer health care system, arguing that the plans of the other major candidates were too dependent on insurance companies and others with a profit motive that was antithetical to the notion of universal, nondiscriminatory care.

To critics who raise the fear that a totally government-run system would end up rationing care to control costs, Kucinich said that insurance companies already ration care. He also scoffed at the argument that private-sector competition would reduce costs, saying that the opposite has been the case in health care.

The bottom line, Kucinich said during the close of his presentation, is that "health care is a right, not a privilege. It is a right. It is a human right."

(by Isaiah Poole)

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