Richardson unveils health care plan in Council Bluffs

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10101641

BY ROBYNN TYSVER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson unveiled a health care plan Tuesday that might not be as bold those of some opponents, but which he insisted would be doable.


Bill Richardson speaks in Fort Madison on Friday during his five-day campaign swing across southeast Iowa.

The New Mexico governor proposed expanding existing programs — such as Medicare and Medicaid — to develop universal health coverage for all Americans rather than create what he called "new bureaucracies."

"The path to universal health coverage will not be easy, but it is both the right and righteous thing to do," Richardson told about 20 people at a firefighters union hall.

Richardson is the latest candidate to offer a proposal on health care, which appears likely to be a key issue in 2008.

Like his fellow Democratic hopeful John Edwards, Richardson says all Americans should be required to purchase insurance or be enrolled in a government program.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama would not mandate that all individuals have insurance. But like Edwards, Obama would help those who can't afford health insurance to pay for it. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who polls indicate is the Democratic front-runner, is working on her own health care proposal, her campaign says.

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Yeah we wouldn't want to cut the fucking-us health insurance industry out of their rental agreement on us serfs. What would we do with the billions in savings? Hire nurses? Add a real prescription benefit to medicare-for-everyone?

can pay should pay.

These plans 'bake-in' profits for the health insurance industry and create a two-tiered public health system. Those profits are completely unneccesary as there is no value added from private insurance, and the money should instead be used to provide health care. We should pay through our income tax/FICA system. Everyone pays in if they are working, everyone gets the same healthcare regardless of their income status. Expand medicare to everyone and put in place a real prescription plan. It really is very simple, and it would work, and we would get better care at a lower cost per capita.

already in place. I think it would work.