Editorial, Op-Eds Discuss Presidential Candidates' Health Care Proposals

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 01 Oct 2007 - 8:00 PST

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Summaries of an editorial and several opinion pieces looking at health care proposals put forward by presidential candidates appear below.

Editorial

• Houston Chronicle: Of all the candidates' health care plans, those that "build on the successes of the private health insurance market and mend the cracks of its failures" are the "most intriguing" and "possibly the most pragmatic," according to a Chronicle editorial. "If realized," such a plan "would accomplish a return to an insurance market that does not discriminate by age, health status or other factors," the editorial states. "Difficult though it may be, reformers in the upcoming battle must keep all stakeholders engaged in the effort to find a workable compromise," the Chronicle says, concluding, "In the case of the insurance industry, they must put a premium on it" (Houston Chronicle, 9/25).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Marie Cocco, Bergen Herald-News: The "hubbub over Hillary Clinton's health insurance plan has temporarily subsided," and "that silence you hear is the sound of Republican presidential candidates offering their own alternatives to finally cover all of the country's 47 million uninsured men, women and children," syndicated columnist Cocco writes in a Herald-News opinion piece. "Basically, the emerging Republican idea about health insurance is the same as the party's idea about everything else: Take any problem that is large and complex and solve it with a tax cut," she writes, adding, "In essence, the GOP would do away with the employer-based system of health insurance and put in its place a system of tax breaks for individuals who would then supposedly have enough money -- and negotiating skills -- to buy their own coverage and get a better deal from the insurance industry." Such proposals would "fail to expand coverage" and likely would "make those who do have it worse off than they are now," Cocco concludes (Cocco, Bergen Herald-News, 9/27).
  
  
• Quentin Young/Don McCanne, Chicago Tribune: "Many will try to contrast the differences" in proposals from Democratic and Republican candidates, but they are "all basically the same" because every candidate has "made the protection and enhancement of the private insurance plans a higher priority than patients," Quentin Young, national health coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program, and Don McCanne, the group's senior health policy fellow, write in the Tribune. The authors support "a single-payer national health insurance system [that] would bring quality care to all Americans at a cost we can afford," they write. Young and McCanne conclude, "With the right presidential leadership," such a system "could end the national shame of our health care crisis" (Young/McCanne, Chicago Tribune, 9/26).
  
  
• Samantha Rosman/James Hubbard, Des Moines Register: The American Medical Association's recently announced three-year Voice for the Uninsured campaign is "aimed at putting an end to the heavy burden that being uninsured is creating for too many hard-working American families," Susan Rosman, a member of AMA's board of trustees, and James Hubbard, president of the Iowa Medical Society's board of directors, write in a Register opinion piece. AMA encourages voters to ask candidates about their "views on ensuring health care coverage for all Americans," the authors write. According to Rosman and Hubbard, health care is "an issue that affects each and every one of us regardless of party affiliation" and "deserves more than sound bites from the candidates. It demands meaningful and thoughtful discussion." They conclude, "The entire nation is listening" (Rosman/Hubbard, Des Moines Register, 9/26).
  
  
• Don Erler, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Clinton's "relatively moderate" health care plan is "the best of the major Democratic plans" and "can become even better by incorporating some common sense," according to a Star-Telegram opinion piece by General Building Maintenance President Don Erler. "Most important is the need to require everyone to expend personal funds for at least part of medical care" because putting "individuals in charge of health care dollars promotes efficiency and economy," Erler writes, adding that insurers should "sell their plans in all states and ... offer everything from Model T to Lexus policies." He concludes, "Universal care is coming. Its hallmark should be choice" (Erler, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9/25).
  
  
• Richard Miller, Wall Street Journal: Presidential candidates in recent months have debated "possible changes to America's health care system," and "one thing is clear -- there will be greater emphasis on patient choice" -- a "welcome debate, as Americans currently are prevented from making ... the health care decisions that would best serve them," Miller, president and CEO of Pharmacyclics and an adjunct professor of oncology at Stanford University Medical Center, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. According to Miller, the proposals "all seek to spur greater patient choice of insurers, doctors and potential treatments," but "our choices are not only constrained by limited insurance options." He adds, "Patient choice is also severely compromised by a lack of comparative performance data on individual physicians, hospitals, clinics and treatments. And in many life or death situations, where treatment options exist but carry some risk, the FDA and courts are denying patients the right to choose altogether" (Miller, Wall Street Journal, 9/27).
  

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