Opinion Pieces Address Health Care Issues In 2008 Campaign

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 29 Oct 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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

• Anne Kinzel, Des Moines Register: A number of presidential candidates have promoted their health care proposals to Iowa residents, but "are they asking us what we actually want or are they just giving us 10-second sound bites to what is a 65-year-old issue?" Kinzel, an honorary board member of CodeBlueNow!, writes in a Register opinion piece. Kinzel writes, "Until we the people get involved, nothing will change, no matter what the candidates say" about health care, adding, "We are not as divided as our political parties would have us think." Kinzel concludes, "It's time to couple the ingenuity of Americans with the knowledge of health professionals because together we can solve our problems and tell the candidates what they need to do -- for us" (Kinzel, Des Moines Register, 10/22).
  
  
• Erin Neff, Las Vegas Review-Journal: Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has described "voter concern about health care" as "standing on a trap door that could easily drop them into financial insecurity or bankruptcy at the whims of a health insurance company," and she also "knows first-hand just how quickly that door could open under her own campaign," columnist Neff writes in a Review-Journal opinion piece. According to Neff, "Clinton is at her strongest discussing the need for health care reform, in part because of her past battles," but, "just like all those Americans worrying about rising costs or losing coverage, Clinton's general election hopes may very well be standing on a health care trap door" (Neff, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 10/23).
  
  
• Maggie Gallagher, New York Post: The "question people really want" answered before "judging whether nationalized health care beats the U.S. health care system" is under which system "are you more likely to get the health care needed to prevent and treat chronic or life-threatening illnesses?" Gallagher, a nationally syndicated columnist, writes in a Post opinion piece. She writes, "It's somewhat better to be sick in the United States than in Canada" because U.S. residents are "more likely to get preventive health care treatment for serious or chronic health conditions" than Canadian residents, who also "have far less access to sophisticated medical screening technologies." Gallagher writes, "I don't know why Canadians tolerate a system where sick people are routinely denied quick access to care that they need," adding, "Is that really where Hillary wants us to go?" (Gallagher, New York Post, 10/25).
  
  
• John Goodman, Raleigh News & Observer: The U.S. health care system has "three fundamental problems" -- cost, quality and access -- and the health care proposals of the three major Democratic presidential candidates "would be costly and burdensome -- in the very act of not solving any problems," Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, writes in a News & Observer opinion piece. According to Goodman, the proposals would "require everyone to buy insurance, or require employers to provide it, create a Medicare plan for non-seniors, allow individuals to participate in the federal employees' health system and impose new regulations and lots more bureaucracy" (Goodman, Raleigh News & Observer, 10/23).
  
  
• Marsha Mercer, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Most presidential candidates "skate around Medicare and Social Security," but Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) "is unafraid to touch" an issue "most lawmakers won't," Mercer -- Washington, D.C., bureau chief of Media General News Service -- writes in a Post-Intelligencer opinion piece. According to Mercer, McCain has said that the "big cloud over boomer retirees and their children isn't Social Security -- it's Medicare" because "Social Security isn't projected to go belly up until the distant 2041," and Medicare will become insolvent by 2019. Mercer concludes that Medicare and Social Security "are tough issues" and that McCain has offered "straight talk" on those concerns (Mercer, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/23).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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