Are You For or Against Universal Health Care? - Candidates?

Who would you vote for if Universal Health Care were the only issue based on the three choices below?

I want choices. I want to have it separate from my taxes. Based on my income, or a tax credit. I do not want to be forced to pay it with my taxes. I do not want my wages garnished, or collectors calling me.(such as with Edwards "plan")

Aren't those the two places the government currently gets all payments to the government? Do you have a problem with Social Security and Medicade being withdrawn automatically from your paycheck or the government giving income taxes?

as I said, with paying along with my taxes. Now if it came in the form of a tax break, that I furnish the proper documentation to recieve the credit, I'm alright with that. Look, I pay a LOT of money out every April, both business, and personal, and I do NOT want to have to come up with ANOTHER $3-4-5-6K dollars at that time. This is something people really need to consider, because that's what's going to happen. If you are young, and I suspect you are, you might want to look at some of the other candidates options. Biden has a really good plan. Hillary's would be my 2nd choice, because I can keep the plan I have right now. You can't do that with Edwards, as it stands right now.

That is not true. You can keep the plan you have right now with Edwards' plan. The government plan is optional. It is only mandated that you have a plan, but it can be the plan of your choice. Only when you have no other coverage are you signed up for the government plan automatically.

Hillary will use private insurance companies. I don't know about Biden.

Universal Health Care is mandatory like Social Security is mandatory, otherwise it will not be universal as it will leave many uncovered.

enforcing UHC does not equal "prove that I have it in order to get a job"

There are few, but several ways to enforce UHC.

of course i would,it`s the only plan that i could afford health insurance. by the time anyone passes health care reform i`ll be on social security/medicare

and subsidized up to 100,000.

And, to be honest, let's look at the "plans";

Here's Edwards(as posted on his site);

John Edwards has a bold plan to transform America's health care system and provide universal health care for every man, woman and child in America.

Under the Edwards Plan
Families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price.
Families with insurance will pay less and get more security and choices.
Businesses and other employers will find it cheaper and easier to insure their workers.
The Edwards Plan achieves universal coverage by:
Requiring businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance.
Making insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs.
Creating regional "Health Care Markets" to let every American share the bargaining power to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance.
Once these steps have been taken, requiring all American residents to get insurance.
Securing universal healthcare for every American will require the active involvement of millions of Americans.

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And here's Biden's(as posted on his site);

Health Care

Four Practical Steps Toward Health Care For All
Joe Biden’s highest priorities – along with ending the war in Iraq – are universal health care and education. He will convene a national gathering of key health care stakeholders from labor, business, health care and government within the first 90 days of his administration to seize the historic opportunity created by the recognition from organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies, the Business Roundtable and the AMA to the labor movement that the time has come for universal, affordable health care.

Joe Biden’s CARE plan proposes four essential steps toward universal health care:

Cover all Children
Access for Adults
Reinsurance For Catastrophic Cases
Encouraging Prevention and Modernization
Step One: Cover All Children
The path to universal health care starts with making sure that the most vulnerable, our children, have health insurance. Today 9 million children are uninsured.
Joe Biden would cover all kids by:

Expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to at least 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($61,950 for a family of four).
More than 80 percent of uninsured children are in families below 300 percent of the poverty level:
Under 100 Percent of FPL ($20,000) – 2.9 million or 31.8 percent
Between 100 and 199 percent of FPL ($40,000) – 2.9 million or 32.1 percent
Between 200 and 299 percent of FPL ($60,000) – 1.7 million or 18.4 percent
Over 300 percent of FPL ($60,000+) – 1.6 million or 17.6 percent
Allowing all families to buy into SCHIP with sliding scale premiums and co-payments based on family income.
Extending coverage to at least age 21 (as states can choose to do in Medicaid)
Emphasizing wellness and prevention by eliminating co-payments for physicals, vaccinations, vision and hearing screenings and preventive dental check-ups for children of any income level.
Automatically enrolling eligible uninsured children at birth, school registration or through other income-tested programs like WIC, reduced price school lunch or Head Start.
Expanding Medicaid eligibility for some parents of low-income children.

Step Two: Access for Adults
While insuring all children must be our top priority, it is also important to offer uninsured adults access to health care. Building on the existing system, Joe Biden would open the doors to insurance for adults in three ways:
1. Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan Buy-In
Senator Biden would allow uninsured Americans to buy into an insurance program that mirrors the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) – the program that provides health insurance to members of Congress, their staff, and federal employees.
While the program will contain the same carriers and the same plan offerings, the new program will have its own insurance pool. Carriers in the FEHBP program would have to offer plans in the universal buy-in plan, but would have access to reinsurance to help with catastrophic costs for enrollees with greater than usual health costs. The buy-in program could also have an age-adjusted “payment” or “bonus” for plans that enroll older and less healthy people to help carriers avoid the effects of adverse selection.
People would be permitted to buy-in on a sliding scale based on income.
Small businesses would be allowed to participate in the program to help provide insurance for their employees. For companies that buy into the plan, employers, employees and the government would share the cost of the premium. Firms with a high proportion of low-wage workers would get a larger subsidy from the federal government than would firms with higher-wage workers.

2. Medicare Buy-In For People Aged 55-64
There are 29.5 million people between the ages of 55 and 64. Of those, an estimated 4.8 million are uninsured, 1.5 million purchase insurance through the individual market, and 2.7 million are early retirees that get insurance through their employers. Many people in this age group who are uninsured simply cannot afford to purchase insurance in the individual insurance market because of high premium costs due to their age and health history.
Joe Biden will allow people between 55 and 64 to buy in to the Medicare program. Like the FEHBP buy-in proposal, the federal government will provide a subsidy for low-income individuals in this age group to afford to purchase early coverage in the Medicare program.
While the federal government would invest money now to allow uninsured individuals between 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare, this proposal could save money for the Medicare program in the long run. By the time people become eligible for Medicare at age 65, many are already dealing with numerous chronic health conditions. Providing an earlier window to participate in Medicare can allow treatment of chronic diseases to start at an earlier age that can save Medicare costs in the long run. Only 59.3 percent of uninsured near-elderly manage to be able to see a doctor, compared to 87.7 percent and 84.2 percent of privately and publicly insured near-elderly respectively. Giving the uninsured near-elderly the opportunity to enroll in Medicare at an earlier age can improve the number of people able to see a doctor and treat any medical conditions they have that would be more expensive to treat if they had to wait until they were 65 to enroll.
3. Reform The Insurance Industry
Insurance companies often discriminate against people who need insurance the most –those with pre-existing conditions and those with high-risk factors for certain diseases. For individuals who do not have access to employer-sponsored insurance, the high cost of individual insurance policies simply forces them to go without health insurance.

To help people afford health insurance, Joe Biden would:

Allow insurers that offer individual policies to access the reinsurance pool if they agree not to turn people away because of pre-existing conditions or risk of them.
Protect against genetic discrimination by prohibiting employers and insurance companies from collecting or using genetic information when making decisions about hiring, providing health coverage, or discriminating in the pricing of an insurance policy.

Step Three: Reinsurance For Catastrophic Cases
Most Americans, 60 percent, receive health insurance through their employers. But employers are scaling back benefits as the cost of health insurance and health care rises. Millions of workers no longer receive insurance from employers – 70 percent of the uninsured are employed. Around 5 percent of people with the greatest health care costs account for half of health care spending in this country. Just one employee with high medical expenses can push premiums up for all and make insurance unaffordable.
The top 1 percent of spenders – those with expenses above $50,000 a year -- account for 22 percent of health care spending. In contrast, the 50 percent of the population with the lowest expenses accounted for only 3 percent of overall U.S. health care spending with annual expenses of $664 per person.

Those in the top 5 percent of costs spend on average 17 times as much as the bottom 50 percent of spenders. In addition, 57 percent of the top 5 spenders are under the age of 65: 18 percent between the ages of 55-64, 15 percent between 45-54, 10 percent between 35-44, 9 percent between 19-34 and 5 percent 18 and younger.

By creating a federal reinsurance system for catastrophic costs, the risk and burden of covering these patients are spread among the general population, instead of smaller subgroups of employees.

In addition to helping families and business avoid financial disasters, a catastrophic coverage plan (often times called a stop-loss plan) can help lower administrative costs and reduce the variation in health care costs. Ken Thorpe, a professor at Emory University, has estimated that a stop-loss plan that pays 75 percent of claims above a catastrophic threshold would, on average, reduce the variance in claims costs by more than 50 percent. Reducing the risk factor for health plans would translate into lower health insurance premiums.

Providing this type of coverage is not a new role for the federal government in the private insurance market. Indeed, the federal government currently assumes the risk for high-cost cases in several other private markets. For instance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plays a key role in providing financial assistance for the private sector (households and businesses) facing catastrophic losses.

Joe Biden would stop the race to the bottom in providing health care benefits by:

Establishing a federal reinsurance pool to reimburse employers, insurers or associations (including voluntary employee benefit associations) for 75 percent of catastrophic health costs (those exceeding $50,000 per individual) for active and retired employees and their families.
To participate in the rebate program, employers would have to cover all employees and apply best practices to chronic disease management.
Private insurers in the individual market would have to demonstrate that they operate an effective high cost case management system.

Step Four: Encouraging Prevention and Modernization
Too often the debate over health care centers around whether we’re spending enough on health care in this country – when the reality is that the US spends more on medical services than any other developed nation, including those countries that provide health insurance for all.
We can afford to provide universal health care in this country – and we can help pay for it with a national agenda of sensible steps to get skyrocketing health care costs under control.
The U.S. spends over $2 trillion on medical care every year – approximately $6,697 per person. Health care is 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component for employers. Premiums have gone up 78 percent since 2001 – almost four times the rate of wages. In 2007, the average annual premium increased by 6.1 percent. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits for many businesses by 2008. Yet we have no national agenda to address the affordable health care crisis. Joe Biden will begin to bring health care costs under control and increase quality of care by taking the following steps.

Focusing on Prevention: According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), approximately 108 million people in the United States have at least one chronic disease. Including such diseases as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, or osteoarthritis, these conditions have severe impact upon the quality of peoples' lives and health care costs. Obesity, which increases risk for these conditions, has doubled among adults over the last two decades. It is estimated that 75 cents of every dollar spent on care in the United States is spent on patients with chronic diseases. Treating chronic illnesses accounts for approximately 74 percent of private insurance spending and 83 percent of government spending. But many adults and children don’t receive adequate preventive care to manage these conditions before they result in costly complications. For example, according to AHRQ:
Approximately 1.7 million hospitalizations occur annually for a heart attack or congestive heart failure, and over 600,000 people die each year of heart disease.
Nearly 50,000 people die each year as a result of diabetes, making it the sixth leading cause of death.
Health care costs for asthma patients rose dramatically from $4.5 billion in the 1980's to $10.7 billion in the 1990's.
Over 50 million people suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), which contributes to the incidence of stroke and heart disease.
More than half of people age 65 and over have evidence of osteoarthritis; it is the major cause of disability in this age group.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 80 percent of type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of heart disease and strokes and 40 percent of cancer could be prevented if the American public would stop smoking, eat more nutritious foods and make physical exercise part of their daily routine.

Simply put, no health reform plan will be able to work without addressing the high costs associated with chronic disease. In order to contain health care costs associated with chronic diseases, Joe Biden would:

Increase funding for existing programs that promote awareness and prevention of chronic diseases and obesity.
Require insurers participating in federal programs to cover preventive care.
Establish chronic disease treatment programs in Medicare and other federal programs to better manage care, especially when a patient has multiple conditions.
Support research on the best approaches to coordinate chronic disease care.
Waive copayment requirements under Medicare for screenings for cervical, breast and colon cancer, as well as other high cost chronic diseases.
Increasing Comparative Effectiveness Research: The US spends far more per capita on health care than any other industrialized nation; but the increased spending does not result in better health outcomes. In addition, the United States is the largest consumer of medical devices in the world.

One of the challenges facing our health care system, especially with the aging of the population and the health care resources older Americans consume, is controlling the amount of money we pay for treatment. While it is tempting to control Medicare costs by simply reducing payments to providers, that approach does not address the issue of volume of services used— and also creates an access problem, as many providers drop out of publicly-run programs when reimbursement drops too low.

Our current system reimburses providers on the volume of services used, without truly examining what services work best. We need to establish a mechanism to examine what methods work better than others.

To reduce ever-increasing health care costs Joe Biden will create a panel to compare the effectiveness of medical treatments and technologies. This could be housed in an existing federal agency like AHRQ, NIH or HRSA, or it can be an independent, public-private partnership receiving funding from both the federal government and private industry. Many other countries—including Australia, Canada, England, and Germany—already require clinical and economic assessments of medical services as a condition for reimbursement.

To take advantage of this potential, Joe Biden will:

Establish a Comparative Effectiveness Panel to: evaluate treatment protocols, medical devices and new technology and establish best practices for management of chronic diseases.
Investing In Information Technology
Joe Biden’s home state, Delaware, is a leader in adopting new health information technology. The Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) is a state-wide health information and electronic data interchange network for public and private use. With funding from both the federal and state government, DHIN is building a Clinical Information Exchange Utility to provide secure, fast, and reliable exchange of health information among the many health care providers treating patients throughout Delaware.
The potential for a significant improvement in the delivery of health care when healthcare providers and consumers have access to complete health and treatment histories is enormous:

Improved quality of care: When a health provider or hospital has information about a patient's prescription medications, medical history, treatment history and allergies, he/she can make better clinical decisions, which result in better health outcomes for the patient.
Improved patient-provider communication: When a patient has access to more information, he/she is more likely to engage his/her health care providers in communication about treatment options and wellness opportunities. As a result, the patient is more involved in treatment decisions, improving compliance and overall health outcomes.
Reduced duplication of services and treatments: Two of the most significant cost drivers in the health care industry are prescription drugs and high technology diagnostic and testing services, such as MRIs and CT scans. Compounding these costs is the potential for duplication of these treatments or tests. A quick check of an electronic medical record can show a provider the results of tests already performed and stop duplicative tests and procedures from being performed.
The potential savings to the health care industry from full adoption of electronic medical records is substantial. In fact, researchers at the RAND Corporation estimated that full adoption of electronic medical records could save $77 billion annually. RAND also determined that by 2004, 15 to 20 percent of U.S. physician offices had adopted electronic medical records systems.

To get to 100 percent Joe Biden would:

Invest at least $1 billion dollars per year in moving to electronic health records systems.
Provide grants to states to develop electronic medical records and other health IT systems.
Assist hospitals, medical facilities and doctors in upgrading to electronic record systems and implementing them in their practice.
Requiring Uniform Billing and Claims
Administrative costs account for roughly 30 percent of all health care expenditures in the United States. One of the reasons for high administration costs are the numerous insurance claims forms that providers must fill out to get paid for their services. The State of Utah recently tackled this problem by getting all insurers and providers to use a standardized, electronic claim form designed to eliminate claim disputes and loads of paperwork. Every procedure on the form is listed the same way and patients no longer receive notices titled "This is Not a Bill."
When the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) was created in 1994, health officials there estimated the state could save $100 million to $200 million per year by switching to a common system for medical billing. UHIN created a computer system that allows the many different billing systems used by doctors, insurers and hospitals to communicate with one another. But the network also required substantial cooperation from Utah's competing insurers. They agreed, for example, to cut a list of 900 codes for accepting or denying medical claims down to 90 and also agreed on common definitions.

The cost of health insurance has remained flat in Utah while it has increased an average of 13 percent per year in the rest of the United States. Several states are already studying what Utah was able to accomplish. Like federal investment in health information technology, the federal government should help states in their efforts to reduce administrative costs in medical billing.

To support the movement to a uniform billing system, Joe Biden will:

Provide federal funding to support state initiatives to adopt Utah-like insurer agreements to create one claim form used by all insurers with a goal of moving to a uniform system on a national level.
Require insurers participating in federal programs to shift to “paperless” uniform billing and claims forms.
Negotiating For Prescription Drugs
The Medicare Part D prescription drug program was created in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Medicare covers more than 40 million seniors and disabled Americans who are projected to consume $1.8 trillion worth of prescription drugs over the next decade. However, instead of using the purchasing power of 40 million Americans to get the best prices possible for prescription drugs, the Medicare and Modernization Act of 2003 expressly forbids the federal government from interfering in drug negotiations between pharmaceutical companies and the numerous private insurers spread out across the country that offer Part D coverage. Simply put, this “noninterference clause” dilutes Medicare’s bargaining position. The federal government successfully uses its bulk purchasing power to keep costs low in the Veterans Administration health system—why not allow it to do the same for our nation’s seniors who rely on Medicare?
In order lower prescription drug prices in the Medicare Part D program, Joe Biden will:

Remove the prohibition against the federal government negotiating prices for prescription drugs for enrollees in Medicare Part D to allow the federal government to use its bulk purchasing power to reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
Meeting the Need For New Health Professionals
Nurses
Nurses play a critical role in this nation’s health care system – they make the difference in the quality of care patients receive. With an estimated 2.9 million licensed registered and advanced practice registered nurses (RNs and APRNs), nurses represent the largest occupational group of health care workers and provide patient care in virtually all locations in which health care is delivered. Unfortunately, the US is in the midst of a nursing shortage that is expected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows. Even the VA, the largest sole employer of RNs in the US, has a nursing vacancy rate of 10 percent. In the January/February 2007 issue of Health Affairs, Dr. David I. Auerbach and colleagues estimated that the U.S. shortage of RNs will increase to 340,000 by the year 2020 – three times larger than the size of the current shortage when it was at its peak.

There are several reasons for the nursing shortage. First, the nursing workforce is rapidly aging. The average age of the RN population in March 2004 was 47 years old. Second, the population of RNs is growing at a slower rate. Third, many nurses feel burdened by heavy patient loads, stressful working conditions and long hours and subsequently leave the nursing profession. Fourth, nursing schools are unable to educate more RNs at the rate they are needed. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN), U.S. nursing schools turned away 42,866 qualified applicants in 2006 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints.

Joe Biden will help train and put 100,000 new nurses in the workforce in the next five years by:

Increasing yearly loan amounts available in the Nurse Student Loan Program.
Explicitly including accelerated degree nursing students—those who already have an undergraduate degree in another field who have gone back to school to get a degree in nursing—in the Nursing Student Loan Program.
Providing funds for academic institutions to establish doctoral nursing degree programs in states that currently lack even one such program.
Establishing doctoral nursing consortia pilot projects to allow academic institutions to share faculty and other resources to better teach nursing students.
Establishing pilot projects between health facilities and academic institutions to allow nurses to stay in their jobs while also attending school to earn a graduate degree and eventually teach.
Public Health Workers
Public health officials are crucial in reacting to public health emergencies and they are critical to the safety of our communities. Joe Biden will help train the next generation of public health workers by:

Establishing the Public Health Workforce Scholarship Program to provide eligible students with scholarships to study public health.
Establishing the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment program.
Creating a catalogue to publish federal health employment opportunities.
Physicians
Physicians are the backbone of our health care system, and Joe Biden will continue to support the training of physicians by:

Continuing support for Graduate Medical Education.
Supporting initiatives to prepare physicians to practice in specialties to meet impending needs of Americans, especially geriatrics, family medicine and emergency care.



Now, I don't have a formal education, but to me, Joe's looks a lot more thought out. Now, again, this is straight from their websites, and anyone looking for in depth information on a healthcare plan, can definitely find it on Joe's site.

I'll stick with Joe Biden, thanks.

Here is the real info from John Edwards:

http://johnedwards.com/issues/health-care/
More than any of the presidential candidates, John Edwards has come up with a specific and plausible plan that provides for health care coverage for all Americans."

Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times

John Edwards has a bold plan to transform America's health care system and provide universal health care for every man, woman and child in America.
Under the Edwards Plan:

* Families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price.
* Families with insurance will pay less and get more security and choices.
* Businesses and other employers will find it cheaper and easier to insure their workers.

The Edwards Plan achieves universal coverage by:

* Requiring businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance.
* Making insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs.
* Creating regional "Health Care Markets" to let every American share the bargaining power to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance.
* Once these steps have been taken, requiring all American residents to get insurance.

Securing universal healthcare for every American will require the active involvement of millions of Americans.


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http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/health-care-overview.pdf
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE THROUGH SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
“We have to stop using words like ‘access to health care’ when we know with certainty those words
mean something less than universal care. Who are you willing to leave behind without the care he
needs? Which family? Which child? We need a truly universal solution, and we need it now.”
-- John Edwards
The time has come for a universal health care reform that covers everyone, cuts costs, and provides
better care. The number of uninsured Americans has risen to 45 million. Families with insurance face
rapidly rising premiums and risk losing coverage when they need it most. Individuals and small
businesses often face much higher premiums and sometimes cannot get coverage at any price. Our
health care system is the most expensive in the world, yet the results are often disappointing.
Today, John Edwards released his plan to strengthen America’s health care system and insure all
Americans by 2012. His plan is based on the principle of shared responsibility: businesses, families,
and governments must each do their part to achieve universal health coverage and a better health care
system for all of us. His reforms will also make health care more affordable and rational.
The Edwards Plan Will:
 Require businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their
health insurance.
 Make insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP,
reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs.
 Create regional Health Care Markets purchasing pools to give every American the bargaining
power to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance
plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance.
 Once these steps have been taken, require all American residents to get insurance.
Under the Edwards Plan:
 Families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price.
 Families with insurance will pay less and get more security and choices.
 Businesses and other employers will find it cheaper and easier to insure their workers.
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
AMERICA’S BROKEN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
The American health care system is broken. It allows 45 million Americans to go uninsured and tens
of millions more to remain at risk of losing coverage. It is needlessly expensive, burdening families
and businesses without consistently delivering the high-quality care they need.
45 Million Uninsured Americans: There are 45 million uninsured American residents, nearly one in
five non-elderly residents. For these people, preventive care is expensive and even major illnesses
may go untreated until it is too late. An estimated 18,000 uninsured people die every year because
they lack access to care, according to the Institute of Medicine.
Tens of millions more Americans are at risk of losing coverage. One in three non-elderly Americans
goes without insurance at some point over a two-year period. Some families see their claims denied or
insurance cancelled after they incur large bills. Half of US bankruptcies are caused by medical
expenses, even though two-thirds of bankruptcy filers had health insurance. Insured Americans also
pay higher premiums – $922 on an average family policy and $341 on an average individual policy –
to pay for the cost of treating the uninsured.
Spiraling Health Care Costs: The U.S. health care system is needlessly expensive. Health care costs
have consistently grown faster than wages for almost 50 years. Over the past six years, families have
seen premiums grow by nearly 90 percent while benefits have been cut. One in four Americans say that
they or a family member have had trouble paying a medical bill in the past year. More than a quarter of
low- and middle-income households with credit card debt have charged medical expenses. Foundation, 2006; Demos and Access Project, 2007]
Fragmented System of Insurance: While the job-based system of health insurance works for tens of
millions of Americans, it has serious shortcomings. Workers lose insurance when they lose or change
their jobs. Worker mobility discourages insurers from investing in care that would prevent later, larger
costs for illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. Meanwhile, businesses spent $16 billion in 1999
administering their own benefit plans, an inefficient and duplicative process.
Small businesses and Americans without insurance from their job, including entrepreneurs, part-time
workers, and independent contractors, must turn to an unpredictable and often unaffordable insurance
market. Applicants with the wrong age, weight, job, medical or prescription drug history face
unaffordable premiums or cannot get coverage at all. In California, insurers often refuse to cover users
of dozens of widely prescribed medicines as well as roofers, athletes, and firefighters, even if they are
in good health and can afford coverage. In 2005, nearly 60 percent of adults seeking individual
coverage had difficulty finding an affordable plan. One in five were denied coverage, charged a higher
price, or had a specific health condition excluded from coverage.
Inconsistent Quality: The U.S. spends nearly double the amount on health care as the average
industrialized nation, and yet it ranks near the bottom in critical areas like healthy life expectancy and
infant mortality rates. In 2005, the U.S. had fewer physicians, nurses and hospital beds per capita than
the average industrialized nation. Despite the excellence of our doctors and nurses, patients receive
optimal care little more than half of the time. Health care administrative costs totaled $294 billion in
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
1999, or $1,059 per capita, and more than one-quarter of the U.S. health care labor force works in
administration.
UNIVERSAL COVERAGE THROUGH SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
John Edwards believes that we must achieve universal health coverage as quickly as possible. To get
there, all parts of our society must share responsibility. Edwards will make a historic effort to make
insurance affordable and easy to obtain through new regional Health Care Markets, tax credits, and
expanded Medicaid and children’s health insurance programs. In return, employers must contribute
their fair share and individuals must take responsibility for themselves and their families by signing up
for an affordable plan. John Edwards’ vision for health care reform is built on four steps:
First: Business Responsibility. Businesses have a responsibility to support their employees’ health.
They will be required to either provide a comprehensive health plan to their employees or to contribute
to the cost of covering them through Health Care Markets. In return, the Edwards plan will make it
easier for businesses to offer insurance by reducing costs and creating new choices. Covering all
Americans will eliminate the cost of uncompensated care. Businesses can also choose to purchase care
through Health Care Markets, which will offer quality plans at low prices and with minimal
administrative burdens.
Second: Government Responsibility. Government also has a responsibility to help families obtain
insurance. Families cannot be left on their own. To help make insurance affordable, Edwards will:
• Offer New Health Insurance Tax Credits: Edwards will create a new tax credit to subsidize
insurance purchased through Health Care Markets, making premiums affordable for all families.
The tax credit will be available on a sliding scale to middle class families and refundable to help
families without income tax liability.
• Expand Medicaid and SCHIP: Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP) play essential roles in helping low-income Americans getting the health care they need.
Edwards will strengthen the federal partnership with states supporting these programs, committing
the necessary federal resources to allow states to expand Medicaid and SCHIP to serve all adults
under the poverty line and all children and parents under 250 percent of the poverty line (about
$50,000 for a family of four).
• Require Fair Terms for Health Insurance: Edwards will require insurers to keep plans open to
everyone and charge fair premiums, regardless of preexisting conditions, medical history, age, job,
and other characteristics. No longer will insurance companies be able to game the system to cover
only healthy people. Several states – including New Jersey, New York, and Washington – have led
the way on similar community rating and guaranteed issue reforms. In addition, new national
standards will ensure that all health insurance policies offer preventive and chronic care with
minimal cost-sharing.
• Secure the Health Care Safety Net: Even in a system of universal coverage, a health care safety
net including public hospitals, clinics, and community health centers remains necessary. Public
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
hospitals are critical for valuable trauma and emergency care, to respond to a public health crisis or
bioterrorist attack, and as the backbone of our medical education system.
Third: New Health Care Markets. The U.S. government will help states and groups of states create
regional Health Care Markets, non-profit purchasing pools that offer a choice of competing insurance
plans. At least one plan would be a public program based upon Medicare. All plans will include
comprehensive benefits, including full mental health benefits. Families and businesses could choose to
supplement their coverage with additional benefits. The markets will be available to everyone who
does not get comparable insurance from their jobs or a public program and to employers that choose to
join rather than offer their own insurance plans. The benefits of Health Care Markets include:
• Freedom and Security: Health Care Markets will give participants a choice among affordable,
quality plans. Americans can keep Health Care Market plans when they change or lose their jobs,
start new businesses, or take time off for caregiving.
• Choice between Public and Private Insurers: Health Care Markets will offer a choice between
private insurers and a public insurance plan modeled after Medicare, but separate and apart from it.
Families and individuals will choose the plan that works best for them. This American solution
will reward the sector that offers the best care at the best price. Over time, the system may evolve
toward a single-payer approach if individuals and businesses prefer the public plan.
• Promoting Affordable Care: Health Care Markets will negotiate low premiums through their
economies of scale so they can get a better deal than individuals and many businesses can get on
their own. Health Care Markets will also hold down administrative costs by reducing the need for
underwriting and marketing activities (two-thirds of private insurers’ overhead), centrally
collecting premiums, and exercising leadership to reduce costs on billing practices, claims
processing, and electronic medical records. Finally, they will be able to work with insurers to
adopt cost-effective approaches to health care like preventive care and to collect the data necessary
to drive quality improvement.
• Reducing Burdens for Businesses: By assuming the administrative role of negotiating benefit
plans with insurers and collecting premiums, Health Care Markets will minimize administrative
burdens for participating businesses and other employers. Businesses that opt into the markets will
only have to make financial contributions to the cost of covering their employees through markets,
similar to their role in Social Security and Medicare.
Finally: Individual Responsibility. Once insurance is affordable, everyone will be expected to take
responsibility for themselves and their families by obtaining health coverage. Some Americans will
obtain coverage from public programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP and others will get
coverage through their jobs. Other families can buy insurance through the regional Health Care
Markets. Special exemptions will be available in cases of extreme financial hardship or religious
beliefs.
The emphasis on shared responsibility builds on Edwards’ past proposals to insure all children through
shared responsibility and contain health care costs. In 2004, his plan would have made children’s
health insurance affordable and required parents to purchase coverage for their children. Today, he
proposes to expand that approach to make coverage universal.
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
AFFORDABLE AND ACCOUNTABLE HEALTH CARE
The United States spends more than twice as much per person on health care as other developed
countries – a total of $2.2 trillion a year – and has some of the best doctors in the world, but it ranks
near the bottom in life expectancy, infant mortality, and overall performance. Because Americans
change insurers often, insurance companies have little incentive to pay for preventive care. Some
doctors and hospitals are slow to adopt proven treatments. Better, more consistent performance could
save 100,000 to 150,000 lives and $50 billion to $100 billion a year, according to the Commonwealth
Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
Today, John Edwards outlined his agenda to help Americans get better care at lower cost.
Comprehensive coverage for all American residents will allow everyone to get preventive and primary
care and Health Care Markets will pioneer efforts to improve quality. Edwards will apply his shared
responsibility philosophy to ask everyone – hospitals, doctors, nurses, government, and individuals –
to work together to make health care more effective and more efficient.
(1) Help Doctors Deliver the Best Care. Despite having some of the best doctors, nurses, and
hospitals in the world, Americans are treated appropriately in doctors’ offices only about 55 percent of
the time. Nearly a third of patients seeking treatment experience medical mistakes, medication errors,
or inaccurate or delayed lab results.
To help doctors, hospitals, clinics and plans to improve the quality of health care, Edwards will:
• Promote Evidence-Based Medicine: Effective new treatments can take years to be widely
adopted. For example, many patients do not receive beta blockers after heart attacks even though
they are cheap and highly effective. Similarly, doctors sometimes prescribe name-brand drugs
despite the availability of equally effective, less expensive generic drugs.
o Disseminate Objective Information on Medical Advances: Edwards will establish a nonprofit
or public organization – possibly within the Institute of Medicine – to research the best
methods of providing care, drawing upon data from Medicare and the Health Care Markets and
medical experts from across the nation.
o Help Doctors Implement New Advances: Edwards will support new technologies, such as
handheld devices and electronic medical records, to give doctors the latest information at their
fingertips.
o Improve the Health Care Delivery System: Edwards will develop partnerships among
academic medical centers, Medicare, and other federal agencies to make sure high-quality
medicine is practiced everywhere. Improving quality is an important key to making universal
health care affordable in the long run.
• Pioneer New Ways to Pay for Health Care: Our health care system is predominantly fee-forservice:
providers are paid for each treatment, regardless of its necessity or quality. For example, a
hospital that botches a surgery is often paid for the error and then paid again to fix it. Our system
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
should pay doctors for results, encouraging better, more efficient care. Under Edwards’ plan,
Medicare and the Health Care Markets will lead the way, paying higher rates to plans and
providers that provide the very best care, lowering premiums for high-quality plans, and penalizing
plans that fail to meet critical, easily quantifiable goals such as childhood immunization rates.
• Prevent Medical Errors: At least 100,000 patients die each year due to medical errors, according
to the Institute of Medicine. Many other errors seriously injure patients and add to health care
costs. Edwards will support public-private collaborations to reorganize patient care, improve
internal communications, reduce errors through electronic prescribing, and establish basic quality
benchmarks.
(2) Invest in Preventive Care and Health. Study after study shows that primary and preventive care
greatly reduces future health care costs, as well as increasing patients’ health, but our health care
system is focused on treating diseases, not preventing them. Insurance companies have little incentive
to bear these costs. As a result, many people do not receive preventive care such as tests and
immunizations. Other Americans suffer from preventable, chronic conditions that can lead to
complications and disability. Edwards will help Health Care Markets lead the effort to realign
incentives in the health care system that reward healthier outcomes and lower costs.
• Promote Preventive Care: Health Care Markets will offer primary and preventive services at
little or no cost. Incentives like lower premiums will reward individuals who schedule free
physicals and enroll in healthy living programs. Edwards will also support community efforts to
improve health, such as safe streets, walking and biking trails, safe and well-equipped parks, and
physical education programs for children.
• Improve the Treatment of Chronic Diseases: When chronic diseases are not routinely treated,
they can cause emergencies that threaten patients’ health while raising costs. Health Care Markets
will encourage plans to monitor patients’ health to keep them out of the emergency room. For
example, plans can pay for nutritional counseling for diabetic patients to help them make healthy
choices and control their blood sugar levels.
(3) Empower Patients through Transparency. Finding reliable information comparing doctors and
hospitals on price and performance is harder than finding it for a new car. Edwards will create a
“Consumer Reports” for health care, a universal and easy-to-use report card to help Americans
evaluate hospitals’ effectiveness in treating injuries and diseases. Informed patients will make better
choices and drive health care providers to offer better services for lower costs.
(4) Reduce Health Disparities. People of color are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and less
likely to receive timely and effective treatment. Children of African-American mothers are twice as
likely to die within their first year. In California, low-income minority neighborhoods have one-third
as many doctors, as a share of their population, than other neighborhoods do. Edwards will support
medical research into disparities, reduce the pollutions and toxins that disproportionately harm
communities of colors, and support translation services to address language barriers. By helping all
Americans get insurance, Edwards will also address disparities in health caused by disparities in
insurance.
- Labor Donated – Printed in House -
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
(5) Improve Productivity with Information Technology. Health care administration costs more than
$1,000 per American. It may be the fastest growing part of health care costs.
• Adopt Electronic Medical Records: Many insurers and hospitals still rely on cumbersome paper
systems and incompatible computer systems. The outdated “paper chase” causes tragic errors
when doctors don't have access to patient information or misread handwritten charts. It creates
needless administrative waste recreating and transporting medical papers, performing duplicative
testing, and claiming insurance benefits. Edwards will support the implementation of health
information technology while ensuring that patients’ privacy rights are protected. Savings from
electronic records could be as great as $160 billion a year, according to a RAND study.
• Support Local Infrastructure: Edwards will provide the resources hospitals need to implement
information systems that improve patient safety and hospital efficiency. Steps include:
o Adopting automated medication dispensers that can quickly and accurately fill prescriptions,
freeing pharmacists to work more with patients and reducing the risk of prescription errors.
o Developing systems to promote patient-doctor communication, such as email and group
consultations and support groups for individuals suffering from the same disorder.
o Creating computerized physician order entry to eliminate lost paperwork and illegible writing.
o Developing computerized patient reminder systems to improve compliance with treatments,
such as automatic phone calls home to remind patients to take needed medication to help keep
them healthy and out of the hospital.
o Using handheld devices to allow hospital staff to communicate results directly to physicians,
instead of wasting time trying to find a doctor with urgent information.
(6) Protect Patients against Dangerous Medicines. Recent drug recalls such as Vioxx have raised
concerns about drug safety. Edwards will restrict direct-to-consumer advertising for new drugs to
ensure that consumers are not misled about the potential dangers of newly marketed drugs and
strengthen the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to monitor new drugs after they reach the
marketplace. He will also ensure that researchers evaluating medical devices and drugs are truly
independent.

poor layout can make or break a website...his plan should be ON the page, not on a submenu sidebar.. people go to a page looking for the info, and half of that page is empty....but, be that as it may, it's still a shitty plan. Even for a guy who sued the medical community for years, and himself made millions, helping to contribute to higher health care cost for all of us...

Good luck with your candidate!

this is the second time you have implied that being young equals being stupid.

not at all. Young people just look at things differently than us older people do. You need to think LONG TERM here, because this plan, doesn't go away when the president leaves office. So if it's a bad plan, you are stuck with it for the rest of your life. Me? I've lived a lot longer than a younger person, and I've seen much more at this point than you have. It's more about history, and experience, than it is intelligence. I have about another 30 years or so until I'm gone...unless I get hit by a bus, or something....but a 20-something has a long way to go.

I don't discount your opinion on your age, you should show the same respect to others.

If there is something wrong with Edwards' plan in the long term, say that, don't say that those who agree with him must be young. In fact, if you look at the numbers, Edwards enjoys the most support of all the candidates in the older demographics.

obviously, we disagree. He may enjoy some older supporters, but a lot of us see right through him too. Some people are influenced by his boyish good looks too, but, alas, I am not one of those people.

Oh, and one more thing you should know. I really use to like him, and wanted him to win. Back last year....I was wishing that he would make himself well known so he could be the president. Then, he started talking, and I started to see what he really is...and I walked away. Now, I can hardly stand to look at him, or hear him. I just don't want to have to spend another 8 years running to the TV remote to shut off a president I can't stand. I'm sure you can appreciate that.

AKA Candidate 1.

No thanks to Hillary (Candidate 2) or Obama (Candidate 3 who OPPOSES Universal Health Care)!

We need Universal Health Care paid for by corporations. Period. BTW, this is my first post to DU, hello to all from a liberal's liberal, haha

We can get rambunctious and opinionated here, but we're always welcoming to new members!

health care is Union related and I KNOW it will require me to pay more than I am now. I'm willing to the hit and spread it around. And my husband retired early so we could take care of his mother who has severe Alzheimer's and will soon reach her 9th year living with us. Our monthly income is limited, but we have our home and some land investment that we bought when the price was low. I look around and can ALWAYS find others who don't have as much as I do, and it keeps me going.

By today's standards I don't even think we're middle class anymore, but I'm will to sacrifice what I can if we could get the "mess" cleaned up. After watching SICKO it hit me hard and the issue came home to roost. Now, the War Spending is atrocious and I know in years to come we are fixing up and mending many more who would have died in Viet Nam because technology has come a long way.

But if you thought the POW/MIA health issues were bad... just wait and see what will be coming down the pike and we as a Nation had better get ready!

That's what I'm for.

I am not for manipulating private insurance plans and leaving private insurance companies owning the health care system.

to cut them out of the loop.

Everybody needs health care, and I am tired of feeding the bloated private corporate insurance company pigs who dole it out now.

And, with a handicapped brother and an aged family member who took a paralyzing stroke and now needs long-term personal assistance and care, I can tell you that LONG TERM CARE for all who are disabled must be provided. In the family home, if desired, not warehoused like a slab of meat in some private, for-profit nursing home where every penny is cut so as not to let frivolities like providing care to the residents risk lowering profits and the CEO's salary.

And yes, I WILL GLADLY PAY FOR THIS THROUGH MY TAXES, just as we now pay for police, roads, schools, etc.

This is why I cannot personally get excited about any of the Dem presidential candidates. Not one is really attacking this problem except to propose more schemes to further enrich the CEOs and shareholders of insurance companies.

HealthCARE or I DON'T CARE!

I will vote for John Edwards.

Not only is the UHC plan the best, but COLLEGE for those who want it is huge.

Do you all hear it - COLLEGE FOR THOSE WHO WANT IT!

What is wrong with voters? College for those who want it! That is huge - yet do you hear any other candidate saying it?

He didn't start pushing that envelope until Biden started talking about his plan. Which is better too. What's wrong with voters? I think they have their blinders on, really, I do.

PS. When people only look at one candidates "plans", I guess they don't know there are better options out there.

As long as the people who are supposed to pay for your health care lose money if they provide it to you, the system will be out of whack. That is the current state of affairs.

Remove the profit motive as the primary raison d'etre of the health care system and watch it get better.

I'm OK with profit, mind-but in its proper place.

Politics dictate it as the way most likely to work and I'll be satisfied letting the political process determine the details of enforcement

I support single-payer healthcare-- the only long-term, tested and proven solution to providing quality universal healthcare. I don't support the mandate corporate giveaway plans being pushed by Hillary, Obama and Edwards.

The choice to have others is just a choice. If you don't have health care already, you are automatically signed up for the government plan. This will lead to single payer, long term.

This is the lie not being told. The "goverment plan" that lots of people refer to is just basically a batching entity that uses tax payer money to purchase insurance from private companies at slight discount rates.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/

http://www.opm.gov/insure/08/planinfo/ca.asp