Editorials, Opinion Pieces Address Health Care Issues In Presidential Campaign

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 15 Oct 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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Summaries of several editorials and opinion pieces that discuss health care issues in the 2008 presidential election appear below.

Editorials

• Hartford Courant: "Every Democratic and Republican presidential hopeful has come up with a health care plan for the nation" in response to a "collective acknowledgment that America's health care system is ailing," according to a Courant editorial. The "candidates are responding because constituents are asking for, and in many cases demanding, remedies," the editorial states, adding, "The need for universal health care should be high on the agenda" for the election (Hartford Courant, 10/9).
  
  
• Long Island Newsday: Presidential candidate and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) should receive "credit" for "addressing the looming shortfall in funding" for Medicare and other entitlement programs during a recent debate in Michigan, a Newsday editorial states. The editorial adds, "He's right to say it's the number one long-term problem the nation faces" (Long Island Newsday, 10/11).
  
  
• USA Today: Presidential candidates "in both parties are ducking" the issue that is "coming to dominate the budget: health care costs," according to a USA Today editorial. Proposals that address the issue "will have to involve unpleasant choices such as raising copayments, requiring the wealthy to pay more or reducing drug benefits," the editorial states, adding, "When candidates start talking about those things, you'll know they're serious about fiscal responsibility" (USA Today, 10/11).

Opinion Pieces

• Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune: Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is "lifting" from her "longtime opponents" a proposal to provide refundable tax credits to help low-income U.S. residents purchase health insurance, columnist Chapman writes in a Tribune opinion piece. According to Chapman, "Clinton has a long way to go," as her health care proposal remains "heavy on the kind of intrusive government dictates she has always found so alluring," but "conservatives can hope that she has only begun to learn from them" (Chapman, Chicago Tribune, 10/11).
  
  
• Oxford Analytica, The Hill: A "new theme of 'shared responsibility' is emerging on the question of health care reform," as the "chronic problems" with the U.S. health care system "are becoming more acute," consulting company Oxford Analytica writes in a Hill opinion piece. "There is a growing consensus that it is politically viable to require several groups to work together as part of a more comprehensive strategy ... rather than targeting just one element of the health care system at a time," and both "Democrats and Republicans believe that this approach will be a better way to contain costs and improve quality while also achieving universal coverage," according to the opinion piece. The opinion piece adds, "If consensus can be reached, the move towards involving more stakeholders could strengthen the political impetus for change" (Oxford Analytica, The Hill, 10/11).
  
  
• Sally Pipes, Wall Street Journal: The health care proposal recently announced by Clinton "would explode government spending -- the plan's initial price tag is $110 billion -- expand bureaucratic regulation and threaten the health and financial security of millions of Americans," Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and an adviser to the campaign of presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), writes in a Journal opinion piece. The proposal, "based on mandates -- including community rating and guaranteed issue for insurance companies -- more regulation and increased taxes, is not a recipe for cost control but for disaster," she writes, adding, "The answer is not more taxes, more costly premiums and more government regulation." According to Pipes, "The solution is tax-code changes that create a level playing field between health spending by individuals and groups and between insurance and out-of-pocket spending" and efforts to "ensure the freedom of people to purchase insurance under the laws of any state" (Pipes, Wall Street Journal, 10/12).
  
  
• Tom Elliott, Washington Examiner: Democratic presidential candidates "believe they have a political winner in the form of universal health coverage" as polls "show Americans rank health care as their second-highest domestic priority" and "trust Democrats over Republicans to manage it," but Republican candidates "would be remiss to cede the issue" as polls "also show that Americans loathe what universal coverage plans unavoidably require: governmental mingling in individuals' lives," New York Post editorial writer Elliott writes in an Examiner opinion piece. He concludes, "Delegating responsibility to the government is a bad bargain that will inevitably lead not to better care, but to increased coercion" (Elliott, Washington Examiner, 10/11).

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