Bill Richardson on Health Care : Dec 13, 2007
FactCheck: Between 7% and 31% of costs are administrative

Richardson's statistic does have some support, however. A 2007 survey conducted by PNC Financial Services Group said that nearly a third of expenditures went to administration. But that finding was merely the opinion of the 200 hospital and insurance company executives queried.

Also, a 2003 article in the New England Journal of Medicine said that in 1999, 31% of health care expenditures went to administration. The authors included indirect costs, such as an estimate for the time physicians spend on administrative work.

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Dec 9, 2007
FactCheck: No, MA healthcare plan is not paid for, yet

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimated that the state would need an extra $200 million each year for 2007 to 2009 to finance the health care plan, because more people enrolled in subsidized care than anticipated. That shortfall, however, is a projection, and a Boston Globe article on the budget gap said some money could be shifted from the free care fund, if there is money in that fund to do so. Additional dollars came from a Medicaid waiver granted by the federal government, which is set to expire in 2009. The Massachusetts government is negotiating with federal officials to renew that waiver.

Mike Huckabee on Health Care : Dec 9, 2007
FactCheck: 2/3 of uninsured can't afford insurace, not 1/3

We asked Huckabee's campaign how he knew that 1/3 thought they were "invincible," but we've received no response. We can find no studies that support the "invincibility" theory. [The closest is that] about 3 million people are uninsured because they decline available workplace health insurance.

Huckabee also errs in claiming that only 1/3 can't afford insurance. About 2/3 of the uninsured are considered low-income families. Huckabee would be correct to say that 1/3 of the nonelderly uninsured are living below the poverty level.

Huckabee's claim that 1/3 of the uninsured are self-insured is a meaningless statement. In fact, anyone without health insurance must rely on their own resources to pay medical bills. That's what being self-insured means.

Fred Thompson on Health Care : Dec 9, 2007
Lower cost by more efficient markets, not bigger government

A: The lower health care costs are, the more people will be insured. There's really two basic ways to lower health care costs: bigger government or more efficient markets. Government could come in and say what it's going to cost everybody. And then we'd have long lines & waiting, wondering why we can't get radiation for a family member that has cancer and have to wait for months for it, and that sort of thing. We totally, I think, all reject that. I say, let's make our markets more efficient. We made a mistake in our tax code many years ago. We need to reverse that mistake so people are not so tied to their employment for their insurance. They need, through the tax code, need to have the benefit of buying their own insurance through an open market with more sources, more people offering insurance, lifting regulations to make that happen. Free people competing with each other in free and open markets bring down costs.

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Dec 9, 2007
FactCheck: MA employers have no mandates, but "requirements"

Massachusetts may not call its rules for employers a "mandate," but the state health care plan includes several "obligations" or "requirements," as the state dubs them, for employers, along with fees for noncompliance. The requirements for employers are much narrower than those for individuals, who indeed, according to the state, face a "mandate" to get health insurance.

But is a "requirement" a "mandate"? You be the judge: Employers with more than 10 full-time employees must pay at least 33% of employee premium costs or have a group health plan. Those that fail to do so must pay a fee of $295 per full-time employee per year.

Individuals in the state must have health insurance. If not, they'll lose their personal exemption on state income taxes in 2007--a penalty of $219.

John Edwards on Health Care : Nov 18, 2007
For universal coverage for kids in '04; now coverage for all

A: I was for universal health care for children in 2004. I believe that now we are at a crisis stage. We have a dysfunctional health care system and the only true answer is universal health care for everybody. And I might add, Senator Clinton was not for universal health care at the beginning of this campaign.

John Edwards on Health Care : Nov 18, 2007
Taking away Congress' healthcare intended to shake things up

A: Well, first of all, when I talk about shaking up Washington and making this place actually work for the American people, it is interesting to watch the people inside Washington, including Senator Clinton, circle the wagons and start protecting Washington politicians. The president has enormous power. He has the bully pulpit to make this proposal to America and to the Congress. If you go across this country and say, "Your Congressman or your Congresswoman is for their own health care and their family's health care but they're not for health care for you"--the whole point of this is to shake the place up.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Nov 15, 2007
Health care tax credit ensures affordability

Barack Obama on Health Care : Nov 15, 2007
FactCheck: Coverage plan might leave 8.5 million uninsured

Clinton uses a dubious statistic when she claims Obama's plan would leave out 15 million of the uninsured. But Obama's statement that his proposal provides "universal" health care is also suspect. Clinton based her claim on a column by The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn, who loosely estimated Obama's plan would leave 15 million uninsured. Cohn offered an estimate based on the best information available, not a hard and fast calculation. The best available information says that Obama's plan would leave between 8.5 million uninsured, up to 18 million people uninsured if Obama has no individual mandates. The Obama plan does include limited mandates, including a requirement for employers to either provide health insurance or pay into a public fund.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Nov 15, 2007
Problem isn't mandating coverage, but affording it

John Edwards on Health Care : Nov 13, 2007
AdWatch: Universal health care by July 2009

EDWARDS: When I'm president, I'm going to say to members of Congress and members of my administration, including my Cabinet, "I'm glad that you have health care coverage and that your family has health care coverage. But if you don't pass universal health care by July 2009--six months--I'm going to use my power as president to take your health care away from you." There's no excuse for politicians in Washington having health care when you don't have health care.

EDWARDS PRESS RELEASE: Edwards said on the first day of his administration he would submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless universal health care legislation that meets four specific, non-negotiable principles has been passed by that date.

John Edwards on Health Care : Nov 13, 2007
FactCheck: President cannot remove Congress' health care

All Edwards could do as president is to push Congress to legislate away its own health-care coverage. And in fact, that's as far as he goes when stating his position on his Web site. In a press release, Edwards says he would "submit legislation that ends health care coverage... on July 20th, 2009--unless universal health care legislation that meets four specific, non-negotiable principles has been passed by that date."

That doesn't sound like much of a threat, does it? It may make a tougher-sounding political ad, but it's a threat that is misleading and empty.

Chris Dodd on Health Care : Oct 30, 2007
Address medical malpractice with universality

John Edwards on Health Care : Oct 30, 2007
Provide incentives for students to go to nursing school

Barack Obama on Health Care : Oct 30, 2007
Tackle insurance companies on reimbursement system

Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Oct 30, 2007
Insurance companies make money by NOT providing health care

Rudy Giuliani on Social Security : Oct 21, 2007
Supports adding private accounts for Social Security

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Oct 21, 2007
FactCheck: MA plan works, but Romney not proposing it for US

It's also unclear how many of the previously uninsured have gained coverage under the Massachusetts plan. While the program has successfully enrolled 200,000 people, some of those may have switched from less desirable policies. A more apples-to-apples measure found that 395,000 people didn't have insurance in the state in 2006, then a 10% decrease in the uninsured through July 2007.

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Oct 21, 2007
FactCheck: HillaryCare closer to RomneyCare than "all gov't"

• They both require that individuals obtain insurance and also require employers provide it.
• They both provide government subsidies for those with low incomes.
• Both expand the number of people covered under Medicaid.

Rudy Giuliani on Health Care : Oct 21, 2007
FactCheck: No evidence that free market would halve premiums

We asked the campaign if there was any research supporting that statement, and they had no comment. The only backup we could find is Giuliani's own faith in the virtue of free markets. He told news organizations that as people buy private health insurance instead of getting it from their employers, the competition for customers would cause companies to lower their prices.

We ran that logic by a Clinton administration analyst, who questions how such a price drop could happen, concluding, "The only possible way it would reduce premiums is if the underlying claims expenses were a third to a half lower.

Rudy Giuliani on Health Care : Oct 21, 2007
Medicare and Medicaid need a private solution

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Oct 21, 2007
Let states create their own private, market-based insurance

ROMNEY: First of all, I'm not going to give the Democratic legislature credit for the plan that I helped build. I think it's a model that other states can adopt in some respects. But our plan is different than Hillary Clinton's in a lot of important ways. For Democrats, they want to have government take it over. The right answer is to get all of our citizens insured so they don't have to worry about losing their insurance if they change jobs or have a preexisting condition. But Hillary says the federal government's going to tell you what kind of insurance, and it's all government insurance. And I say no, let the states create their own plans, and instead of government insurance, [have] private, market-based insurance. Hillary's plan costs an extra $110 billion. My plan doesn't cost any additional money.

Ron Paul on Health Care : Oct 21, 2007
Socialized medicine won't work; nor managed care

Rudy Giuliani on Social Security : Oct 21, 2007
Get a consensus behind private accounts

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Oct 9, 2007
Get everybody insured with state-based market dynamics

1. We're going to have states create their own plans. We did it in our state, and it's working. We're not going to have the federal government tell them how to do it.
2. We're not going to spend more money. Hillary Clinton's plan costs $110 billion. Mine says, let's use the money we're already spending a little more wisely.
3. Instead of having the federal government give you government insurance, Medicare and federal employee insurance, let's have private insurance.

Sam Brownback on Health Care : Sep 27, 2007
Expand Health Savings Accounts

A: This is a real problem. It's real people that are involved in this type of situation. I think the question you have to ask is: Which is the best way to go, then? Do you do it with more government or do you do it with more markets? Because these are real people experiencing this. And I pick more markets and real markets with it. Because I have not seen, in this country, ever, when the government enters into something on a bigger basis, do we get higher quality service or more of it? We don't. It doesn't work that way. One thing that hasn't been talked about up here is Health Savings Accounts. We need to expand that so people can save money, tax-exempt, from their work, the employers putting that in so they can have some money for their health care coverage.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Sep 23, 2007
Since 1993, new consensus developed on need for healthcare

A: I'm proud that we tried in '93. Obviously, we made a lot of mistakes. [With my new plan], if you're one of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, then you are going to have access to the same health choices menu that members of Congress do. I proposed that back in '93, and ran into a firestorm of opposition from the Congress. But I think a lot has changed in the last 14 years. A consensus has developed about what we need to do to try to reach quality, affordable healthcare. A consensus has developed because people who didn't approve of what we were trying to do or who were on the sidelines have seen what has happened. It is not only a moral imperative that we try to cover everyone, it is now an economic necessity.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Sep 23, 2007
American Health Choices Plan: keep yours or pick Congress'

But if you are one of those 47 million uninsured, or if you are one of the many millions more who actually have insurance except when you really need it and the insurance company won't pay for what your doctor has prescribed, you will now have the same choices that are available to members of Congress, because we will open up the plan that members of Congress have and give you a health choices menu to choose from.

We will also provide a health care tax credit for those who cannot, on their own, afford it or who don't have employer help. Similarly, I will provide a new small business health care tax credit because a lot of small businesses tell me that they'd love to be able to help provide health care for their employees, but they just can't afford it, and we're going to make it affordable.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Sep 23, 2007
Pay for health plan by $52B tax repeal & $77B efficiencies

A: In our system, we have a lot of inefficiencies. Let's take electronic medical records, because if we were to have a system where everyone had a private, confidential health care record--this is something that I've worked on with Newt Gingrich--we would see that we would save a lot of money. If we better managed chronic care, we would save money, because right now we don't, and we pay a big price for it. My plan has about $52 billion in tax cuts, by moving the tax rates back to the pre-Bush era. And yes, taxes will go up on people making $250,000, but most Americans will see a net tax decrease.

Fred Thompson on Health Care : Sep 20, 2007
Competition, free-market solutions & personal responsibility

• Creates a system around individual patients by providing more information & more opportunities to choose affordable health care options that best meet their needs and those of their families.
• Shifts to a system that promotes cost-effective prevention, chronic-care management, & personal responsibility.
• Modernizes delivery & administration of care by encouraging the widespread use of clinical best practices & medical information technology.
• Increases competition & consumer choice while streamlining regulations through free-market solutions that benefit individuals and reduce costs for employers.
• Promotes and speeds medical research and life-sciences innovation.

Mike Huckabee on Health Care : Sep 17, 2007
Oppose mandated health insurance and universal coverage

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

Duncan Hunter on Health Care : Sep 17, 2007
Oppose mandated health insurance and universal coverage

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

John Cox on Health Care : Sep 17, 2007
Oppose mandated health insurance and universal coverage

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

Tom Tancredo on Health Care : Sep 17, 2007
Oppose mandated health insurance and universal coverage

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

Ron Paul on Health Care : Sep 17, 2007
Oppose mandated health insurance and universal coverage

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

John Edwards on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Take on insurance & drug companies, who have blocked reform

Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Let the US be like every other industrialized democracy

A: Well, first of all, I'm for a national health-care plan. The whole debate about universal health care has been a fraud. All these other candidates are talking about keeping the for-profit insurance companies in charge of health care in America. That's not what I'm talking about, because these private insurers make money NOT providing health care. And so, I'm saying no more role for them. Let the United States be like every other industrialized democracy in having a health-care plan, a national plan where we take care of our people. And we're already paying for it. We spend $2.2 trillion on health spending, but $600 billion of it goes for the activities of the for-profit system each year. I'm talking about taking that money, putting it to care for people.

Q: And it would cost how much?

A: It would cost the same amount we're spending now, except that all the money goes into the system.

Bill Richardson on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Universal health care, no matter who you are

A: I do favor universal health care, no matter who you are, rich or poor, black, brown, white, that has to be the fundamental point in my health-care plan. I believe th way you do it is by:

• Having no new bureaucracies
• Giving choice to everybody to keep the health-care plan, if they have it
• But I would first focus on the fact that we spend $2.2 trillion on health care, yet 31% of that goes to administration bureaucracy and lack of electronic records.
• Where I differ with other candidates, especially Sen. Edwards, is I don't propose a new tax or any new bureaucracy.
• We need to focus more on prevention, on getting rid of junk food in schools, cancer research.
• I would allow everybody to participate in the congressional plan.
• I'd lower Medicare to 55. It's today 65 and over.
• I would have a shared responsibility. Everybody participates, especially employers, in my health-care plan.

John Edwards on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
$90B-$120B per year for healthcare, by ending Bush tax cut

A: $90 to $120 billion a year. I know that there will be some who argue that they can do universal health care either for free or for very low cost. I don't believe that's the truth. And I think we need to tell people the truth about this. My plan is $90 to $120 billion a year. And I pay for by rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year.

John Edwards on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
If not universal coverage, which people wouldn't be covered?

A: Well, basically what I decided was, first, the only way to have universal coverage was to actually mandate it, in other words, to have a legal requirement that every man, woman, and child in America be covered. That was probably the single most controversial element of my proposal when I made it. I believed that that was important because if anybody's plan is not universal, then they should be made to explain to the American people what man or woman in America is not worthy of health care. I think they're all worthy of health care. And then I constructed it in a way that everybody required to be covered, that people could choose between a private plan and the government plan, which is essentially Medicare plus.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Government healthcare like members of Congress have

A: That's correct. Part of the reason that you're confused about the candidates' differences is because the differences probably matter less than the commonalties. All of the major Democratic candidates are advocating some form of universal health care. The question is, how do we get there? My proposal says:

• We will set up a government program similar to the one that I utilize as a member of Congress, that anybody who wants to can buy into, that we will subsidize those who can't afford it.
• That we will pay for those subsidies by imposing a set of cost-saving measures that will actually improve quality at the same time that they lower costs.
• Using health IT, information technologies, not just for billing but for maintaining medical records, for communicating between doctors and nurses and pharmacists.
• To reduce errors and reduce bureaucracy.
• Managing the chronically ill.

Joe Biden on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Start paying for universal coverage with $100B in redundancy

A: Yes, I do.

Q: How would you pay for it?

A: I would pay for it by three ways. 1) I start off dealing with going into a prevention-and-treatment mode here that required us to simplify and modernize the system. That could save $100 billion a year in redundancy that goes on right now. 2) I would immediately provide for catastrophic health insurance for all Americans, and I'd immediately move for insuring every single child in America. That would cost less than what the top 1% tax break costs, $85 billion a year. 3) Then what I would do is I would move to insuring everyone through one of two vehicles. Either a system we work out among the stakeholders, an agreement that everyone essentially gets Medicare from the time you're born or a system whereby everyone can buy into the federal system. Those who don't have the means to buy in, then you subsidize them into the system. I would pay for that by direct revenues.

Mike Gravel on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Universal coverage with guaranteed equal care

A: I'd pay for it with a retail sales tax. I favor universal coverage of quality medical care. I favor it through a device of using vouchers where everybody would be able to get a voucher. They'd sign up for it every year. It would guarantee them equal health care. All citizens would get the same health care. They would be able choose from insurance plans or a government plan like Medicare. That's how we would have health care, and the only way you're going to pay for it is not by saddling business. All you do by forcing business to pay for health care or passing a law telling people they have to go buy insurance, which is a subsidy for the insurance companies, all these plans are going backwards.

Chris Dodd on Health Care : Sep 13, 2007
Universal health mart: shop for best plan to suit your needs

A: Yes, they do, absolutely. A universal plan that drives down costs, spreads out the risk, which is what I'm advocating, a plan that I think I can achieve within four years of my inauguration.

Q: And how would you pay for it?

A: Well, you pay for it by having everyone contribute based on their ability to pay. And that makes it totally universal. No exceptions. Everyone's involved in this. I'd establish what I call a universal health mart, in a sense, where people could actually shop for the best plans that suit their needs. It's done under the framework of the federal employees' health-benefit plan. My plan is designed to do what you can actually get done here. It keeps plans or parts of things that work and gets rid of things that don't. For instance, I'd ban any discrimination against pre-existing conditions here. It follows you, not your job, in a sense here.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Sep 9, 2007
No parent should be told 'no' for healthcare for their kids

A: Well, I am very proud that we tried to provide universal health care to every American back in 1993 and 1994. I learned a lot from that, and I'm going to be presenting a plan next week that will be universal. It will cover everyone, and it will make it clear that we as a rich nation with the values that should be the best in the world will once & for all make it absolutely positive that everyone will have health care. Now it's not only about the 47 million uninsured. Millions of insured Americans don't get the health care they paid for. We have a lot of people who, all of a sudden, their child needs an operation and the insurance company won't pay for it. Well, we're going to make it clear that there will be no parent who ever is told no when it comes to getting health care for their children.

Chris Dodd on Health Care : Sep 9, 2007
Include undocumented workers in healthcare plan

A: Well, it has to be. This is again a matter of just basic rights in my view here. Not to provide health care for undocumented workers is not only wrong for them. It's dangerous for the country as well. And so my plans include the undocumented workers as part of health care. I also ban discrimination against pre- existing conditions. It's universal.

John Edwards on Health Care : Sep 9, 2007
Comprehensive coverage costs $90B to $120B a year

A: I do not believe you can have universal health care for free. There are some who I think will make that argument. I don't think it's the truth. My own health care plan, which was the first one in this campaign and I'm very proud of it--comprehensive, requires coverage for everybody--costs $90 to $120 billion a year. And I pay for it by getting rid of Bush's tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year.

Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Sep 9, 2007
FactCheck:Insurance industry profit is under $97B, not $600B

In fact, health insurance companies don't make nearly that much. According to the most recent historical data from the Department of Health and Human Services' National Health Expenditures Accounts, the total of all premiums paid for private health insurance was $694.4 billion in 2005. But of that total, $596.7 billion was paid out in benefits. The remainder went to administrative and "net" costs, such as claims processing, disease and care management, sales, marketing, and taxes. These statistics don't break out a figure for profits, but it would be some fraction of the $97.7 billion that doesn't go to benefits, and a far cry from $600 billion.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Sep 6, 2007
I want to be the health care president

A: Well, I'm proud that I tried to get universal health care back in '94. It was a tough fight. It was kind of a lonely fight. But it was worth trying. I made mistakes, but the biggest mistake was that we didn't take the opportunity that was offered back then to move toward quality affordable health care for every single American. But I've come back with a different plan that I believe is much better reflective of what people want, namely, an array of choices. You can keep what you have. But if you're uninsured or you're underinsured, you'll now have access to the congressional plan. You see a lot of people with those stickers that say, "I'm a health care voter." Well, I want to be the health care president.

Barack Obama on Social Security : Sep 6, 2007
Privatization puts retirement at whim of stock market

A: I think that lifting the cap is probably going to be the best option. Now we've got to have a process [like the one] back in 1983. We need another one. And I think I've said before everything should be on the table. My personal view is that lifting the cap is much preferable to the other options that are available. But what's critical is to recognize that there is a potential problem: young people who don't think Social Security is going to be there for them. We should be willing to do anything that will strengthen the system, to make sure that that we are being true to those who are already retired, as well as young people in the future. And we should reject things that will weaken the system, including privatization, which essentially is going to put people's retirement at the whim of the stock market.

Bill Richardson on Social Security : Sep 6, 2007
Don't raise the cap; it's a 15% tax on middle class

A: No, you don't need to do that. That's a 15% tax on small businesses, on the middle class, on family farms. You don't need to do that. This is what you do. One, you take privatization off the table. You don't want Social Security in the stock market. Two, you stop raiding the Social Security Trust Fund, as the Congress and the president constantly do.

John Edwards on Health Care : Sep 6, 2007
2004: universal coverage irresponsible; but US has changed

A: That's true and so has America. I proposed universal health care for children at that point. What happened in '94 is we didn't get universal health care, but we got NAFTA. And when I'm president, you have my word I will never pull the universal health care bill. I will making sure that's enacted.

John Edwards on Health Care : Sep 6, 2007
Congress grants healthcare to all, or give up their own

Edwards' legislative plans would have been more accurately portrayed as asking Congress either to grant health care to all citizens or give it up for themselves.

Dennis Kucinich on Social Security : Sep 1, 2007
Strengthen protections for private pensions

Barack Obama on Health Care : Aug 26, 2007
National Health Insurance Exchange for private coverage

Obama's plan will provide affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage for all Americans by:
• Making available a new public health plan that will allow individuals and small businesses similar to that available to members of Congress. No one will be turned away or charged more due to illness, and everyone who needs it will receive a subsidy.
• Making available a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase private coverage and to reform the private insurance market Any American could enroll in participating private plans, which would have to provide comprehensive benefits, issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums.
• Immediately ensuring all 9 million currently uninsured children.
• Expanding Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program [as a] critical safety net function.
• Requiring employers to make a meaningful contribution to the health coverage of their employees.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Aug 26, 2007
Increase competition in the insurance and drug markets

Obama's plan will reduce costs and save a typical American family up to $2,500 each year:
• Driving adoption of state-of-the-art health information technology systems.
• Improving access to preventive care & chronic disease management programs.
• Requiring hospitals to collect & report cost & quality data.
• Reforming our market structure to increase competition in the insurance & drug markets
• Lowering drug costs by allowing importation of safe medicines & increasing use of generics.

Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Aug 9, 2007
Medicare For All: all long-term care totally covered

Other candidates are talking about maintaining this for-profit health care system, and anyone who has ever had a loved one who has needed medical care and couldn't get it because they didn't have the money understands the urgency of having someone not just in the race but in the White House who's ready to rally the American people in the cause of not-for-profit health care, Medicare for all. And I'm doing that.

John Edwards on Health Care : Aug 9, 2007
Exactly the same healthcare rights for same-sex couples

A: Those rights should be available to gay and lesbian couples. In my universal health care plan, and I've made it very clear that those rights to gay and lesbian couples would be exactly the same as they would for straight couples. And so those health care benefits would be available to someone in that situation.

Joe Biden on Health Care : Aug 8, 2007
Start with catastrophic insurance and insuring all kids

A: We need not just 100,000 new cops, but 100,000 new nurses that we fund in order to make things better. We have to be in a position where we don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good. In the first year, I'd insure every single, solitary child in America and make sure catastrophic insurance exists, and for every single person in America, while we move toward a national health care system covering anybody.

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Aug 5, 2007
Insure 45 million uninsured with a free-market based system

Rudy Giuliani on Health Care : Aug 5, 2007
$15,000 tax deduction for health savings accounts

A: The bill had two very unfortunate parts to it. One, it would reduce Medicaid Advantage, which is a very, very successful program that actually does bring about some form of a free-market solution. And second, it would have the really odd effect of moving children who presently have private insurance to becoming wards of the state, basically having them move in the direction toward socialized medicine. That would be a terrible thing to do. What we should do is increase the number of people who have private insurance. In order to do that, we should give them a major tax deduction, $15,000, let them have a health savings account as part of that. They'll have an incentive to own their own health insurance. That's the thing that's wrong with the market here. It is not really good to move this thing in terms of more government control of health care.

Sam Brownback on Health Care : Aug 5, 2007
Market-based solution over socialized government-pay system

A: Well, that's why I voted against the bill. But it wasn't just that. The piece of it that I think you have to recognize is that you've got a fundamental decision to make here on health care, which is 16% of the economy, going north fast, probably headed to 20% of our total economy. Do you think the solution to providing more and better health care is (1) that we should have more government solutions involved, or (2) should there be more market-based solutions involved? And I think clearly the answer here is you need more market forces in health care. That's what we need to do. Instead, you've got the Democrats doing a step-by-step march toward a socialized government-pay system. And they're very happy to do it that way. But we can get better health care going this way. And we can hold the price of it down and not bust the federal treasury at the same time.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Jul 23, 2007
No need to mandate coverage; just let people afford it

OBAMA: Absolutely it does. John and I have a disagreement. John thinks that the only way we get universal coverage is to mandate coverage. I think that the problem is not that people are trying to avoid getting health care coverage. It is folks like that who are desperately in desire of it, but they can can't afford it.

Q: [to Edwards]: Does Sen. Obama provide universal coverage

EDWARDS: No, because the only way to provide universal coverage is to mandate that everyone be covered. Sen. Obama's made a very serious proposal, and I'm not casting aspersions on his plan. It just doesn't cover everybody. The only way to cover everybody is to mandate it. We have talked about it too long. We have got to stand up to the insurance companies and the drug companies. It is the only way we're ever going to bring about real change. We should be outraged by these stories.

John Edwards on Health Care : Jul 23, 2007
For universal coverage, must mandate everyone be covered

OBAMA: Absolutely it does. John and I have a disagreement. John thinks that the only way we get universal coverage is to mandate coverage. I think that the problem is not that people are trying to avoid getting health care coverage. It is folks like that who are desperately in desire of it, but they can can't afford it.

Q: [to Edwards]: Does Sen. Obama provide universal coverage

EDWARDS: No, because the only way to provide universal coverage is to mandate that everyone be covered. Sen. Obama's made a very serious proposal, and I'm not casting aspersions on his plan. It just doesn't cover everybody. The only way to cover everybody is to mandate it. We have talked about it too long. We have got to stand up to the insurance companies and the drug companies. It is the only way we're ever going to bring about real change. We should be outraged by these stories.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Jul 23, 2007
Reform failed in '90s because of drug company lobbying

Sam Brownback on Health Care : Jul 3, 2007
Supports Health Savings Accounts, not government control

The market-engaging solution is the one that can actually work. Our way is to restore market mechanisms to the system, not simply yo have more and bigger government in health care.

Sam Brownback on Health Care : Jul 3, 2007
Supports competitive marketplace with price transparency

The problem with the current health care system is that it's not generally seen as using our own money, and we have no price transparency. We don't know what we're paying for. Frequently a third party pays the bill.

The patient needs more information, and we need more price transparency. I've cosponsored a bill requiring the disclosure of the amount Medicare reimburses on typical procedures [made] available over the Internet.

Fred Thompson on Health Care : Jun 26, 2007
Americans better served than nationalized Canadian system

It used to be a lot easier to make the case for nationalizing health care before we actually started looking at the countries that have it. Nearest home, it was the Canadian Health Care system that lost its luster. Despite paying 40% of each tax dollar on health care, many Canadian experts have recognized that their health care system's in a state of crisis. The problem has been, simply, not enough health care facilities to serve the population--leading to long and sometimes fatal delays while waiting for treatments. Many Canadians have started coming to the US for treatments that they just can't get at home.

This is what we're supposed to copy? The poorest Americans are getting far better service than that.

John Edwards on Health Care : Jun 19, 2007
Mental health parity: treat it just like physical health

I'm confident, during the course of this campaign, that some candidate will say, listen, we're going to have universal health care, and in the process, we're also going to eliminate the federal deficit. Is it finally time for us to have a president of the United States that will be honest with the American people?

It costs money to have universal health care. I will be the first to say it. My plan costs $90 to $120 billion a year. It's not cheap, but I pay for it by getting rid of Bush's tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 dollars a year.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Jun 19, 2007
Health plan cuts typical family's premium by $2,500 a year

It goes further than any other proposed plan in cutting the cost of health care by investing in technology and preventive care so that children are getting regular check ups instead of having to go to the emergency room for treatable illnesses like asthma, and by breaking the stranglehold of the drug companies and the insurance industries--we are tired of them dictating our health care markets--and helping businesses and families shoulder the cost of the most expensive conditions so that an illness doesn't lead to bankruptcy. And I promise you this: I will sign a universal health care plan that covers every American by the end of my first term as president.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Jun 8, 2007
1993:Ambitious role plagued from start by secrecy complaints

Bill and Hillary set two ambitious goals--rewriting the complex rules that governed 14% of the economy & meeting the deadline of delivering a proposal to Congress within 100 days.

The country seemed comfortable with the historic decision to put a First Lady in charge of a major policy challenge. It didn't take long for the honeymoon to end. The Washington Times, in an article entitled "First Lady's Task Force Broke Law on Secrecy," claimed that reporters had been barred from the first meeting of the task force--an apparent violation of a law because Hillary was not a federal employee and the law allows outsiders to be kept out of advisory committee meetings only if all participants are federal employees.

Rudy Giuliani on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
Switch from employer decisions to individual choices

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
MA program relies on personal responsibility & the market

A: As governor, I talked to people, and they say, "If I lose my job, I'm worried I'll lose my insurance, and my insurance premiums are getting higher and higher." And we said: We got to find a way to get everybody insured. And the last thing we want is to have the government take over health care, because anything they take over gets worse. We said: We need to find a way to get everybody in our state insured with private insurance. [We found] a way to get them insured without raising taxes, without a government takeover. It relies on personal responsibility. Every Democrat up there's talking about a form of socialized medicine, government takeover, massive tax increase. I'm the guy who actually tackled this issue. We get all of our citizens insured. We have to stand up and say the market works. Personal responsibility works.

John Edwards on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
End Bush's tax cuts to pay for health care

Chris Dodd on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
Democrats agree about universality; but not getting job done

Mitt Romney on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
FactCheck: Romney plan virtually identical to Obama plan

There are two problems with Romney's characterization: One, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to propose a single-payer, wholly government-funded health care plan. And two, Romney's Massachusetts universal insurance system bears a striking resemblance to the health care proposals of the Democratic front-runners. For example, the Obama and Romney plans are virtually identical. But in our view, the term "government takeover" could only be applied to Rep. Kucinich's proposal.

Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
Half of all bankruptcies come from medical bills

John Edwards on Health Care : Jun 3, 2007
Obama's health plan will leave about 15 million uncovered

Rudy Giuliani on Health Care : Apr 27, 2007
No socialized medicine; give vouchers to the poor

John Edwards on Health Care : Apr 26, 2007
Require employer coverage for every single American

A: I would get rid of Bush's tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year. My universal health care plan would require employers to cover all their employees or pay into a fund that covers the cracks in the health care system--mental health parity; chronic care; preventative care; long-term care; subsidized health care costs. Give people a choice, including a government choice. And require that every single American be covered.

Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Apr 26, 2007
Universal not-for-profit health care

A: The problem with our health care system--premiums, co-pays and deductibles which for-profit insurance companies run through the roof. I'm the cosponsor of the Conyers-Kucinich bill, H.R. 676, provides for universal, not-for-profit health care, takes that $2.2 trillion and puts it all into health care for people. We are already paying for a universal system of health care. We're just not getting it.

Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Apr 26, 2007
1990s plan failed after big pharma & insurance worked on it

Mike Gravel on Health Care : Mar 24, 2007
Real reform impossible under mercantile lobbying system

John Edwards on Health Care : Mar 24, 2007
Not possible to get universal coverage without raising taxes

A: No, I do not. I spent a great deal of time studying this issue, working with health economists around the country. I've spent many months on this. I do not believe you can have universal health care without finding a source of revenue. We don't get universal health care for free. You have to cover 47 million people who don't have coverage. There's going to be a cost associated with the transition from the health care system we have today to a truly universal and more efficient health care system. So, no, I do not believe it can be achieved without finding an additional source of revenue. [If you believe a politician who says that], they probably got a bridge in Brooklyn they want to sell you too.

Mike Gravel on Health Care : Mar 24, 2007
Single-payer health care plan via vouchers you can add to

John Edwards on Health Care : Mar 24, 2007
Universal coverage makes US business more competitve abroad

A: My plan deals directly with the concerns that small business has. We have a competitiveness issue not only between competitors here in America, we have a huge competitiveness issue between our businesses in America and the rest of the world. If we have a truly universal health care plan that covers every single American from the time they're born until the time they die, it makes American business more competitive in the world. We're spending $1800 on health care costs on every car that's manufactured in America, compared to about $250 in Japan. Creates a huge disadvantage. What my plan specifically does for small business is it gives them market power that they don't have today.

Barack Obama on Health Care : Mar 24, 2007
Need political will to accomplish universal coverage

• that coverage has to be universal
• that we're going to have to save costs and get more bang for our health care dollar
• that employers, government and individuals are all going to have to put up something
• and that savings that we obtain from making a more efficient system can't be just obtained by hitting frontline workers.
• But in addition to those basic principles, we have to challenge ourselves: Do we have the political will and the sense of urgency to actually get it done? I want to be held accountable for getting it done. I will judge my first term as president based on the fact on whether we have delivered the kind of health care that every American deserves and that our system can afford. Click for Barack Obama on other issues.   Source: SEIU Democratic Health Care Forum in Las Vegas

  Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Mar 24, 2007
  1990s healthcare reforms laid groundwork for today's reforms

  I feel a little bit like this is deja vu all over again. All those years ago, we tried to convince the country and the Congress--we convinced the country but we didn't convince the Congress!--that we needed to move toward and achieve universal health care coverage. Now, I am proud we tried. We may not have succeeded, but we set the groundwork in place so that now people are saying, boy, we wish we had done that back then because costs have continued to increase. Pressures on the system, on our doctors, our nurses, our health care workers have just been so stressful. So what we need to do is to make a commitment. And I'm proud that everyone running on the Democratic side is committed to universal health care coverage. I am in favor of universal health care coverage that brings in the 47 million who are uninsured--which is a disgrace--and begins to guarantee coverage to people who already have insurance, because there are a lot of people who think they have insurance except when they need it. Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.   Source: SEIU Democratic Health Care Forum in Las Vegas

  Mitt Romney on Health Care : Mar 12, 2007
  MA reform focuses on individual responsibility (via fines)

  To reform health insurance, Romney partnered with the Heritage Foundation. Of the approximately half-million uninsured in Massachusetts, about 200,000 were healthy risk takers who preferred spending dollars on goods other than premiums for health care insurance they figured they would not need.

  In fact thousands of those risk-takers end up needing health care, and of the expensive sort. The state and the care providers eat the costs, which means the taxpayer and premium payers eventually get the bills. To this group, Romney gives no choice. In January, 2008, they must either insure themselves or be subject to a fine. The poor get subsidies as well as assistance in signing up.

  The legislature tacked on a provision that penalizes companies of 11 or more employees that do not provide health insurance. Romney vetoed this add-on. The legislature overrode his veto. But the lawmakers still handed Romney an enormous victory. They did so because the plan manifestly makes sense.

  Click for Mitt Romney on other issues.   Source: A Mormon in the White House?, by Hugh Hewitt, p.150-152

  Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Feb 21, 2007
  Key to reform: end role for for-profit insurance companies

  Q: Candidates here have debated whether or not it's going to take raising taxes to pay for universal health care. What do you think?

  A: This health care debate is one of the biggest frauds that's been put on the American people. In 2000 and 2004, I brought forth a proposal, Medicare for All. It's embodied in the Conyers-Kucinich bill. It provides for covering everyone. The big difference between what I've been talking about and all the other candidates are talking about is that my plan doesn't provide for a role for for-profit insurance companies. Our party really isn't legit on the issue of health care, because whenever you talk to these candidates, there's always a role for the for-profit insurance companies. Do you know, almost 31% of the spending that goes for health care goes for the for-profit system -- corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork.

  Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.   Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada

  Bill Richardson on Health Care : Feb 21, 2007
  State flexibility creates universal coverage without taxes

  Q: Gov. Vilsack said we don't have to increase taxes to pay for universal health care. Sen. Edwards say don't believe anyone who says that. Who's right?

  A: I would not increase taxes. The problem is the excessive costs of health care and the coverage. I would focus on preventive health care: like child obesity programs. But the big problem is the huge administrative costs of health care. 31% of the costs are administrative. A lot of it is waste. There are 50 Medicaid programs. They don't give the states the flexibility to run them.

  What I like is what some states have done, and that is a Massachusetts-style plan with good benefits that basically says we facilitate it for employers and employees to get mandatory coverage.

  Click for Bill Richardson on other issues.   Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada

  Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Feb 21, 2007
  Universal health care coverage by the end of my second term

  Q: Many experts project that it would cost between $90 billion and $120 billion to actually achieve universal health care for everyone in America. Is comprehensive reform achievable financially?

  A: We already spend more money than anybody else in the world, by about $800 billion, and we have 47 million uninsured. We're also at a competitive disadvantage because other countries either provide health care or don't, and our companies are trying to be competing in a global economy. So I want to figure out how we provide universal health care without putting billions more into the system. Let's get prescription drug prices down by negotiating with the drug companies, for example. I am going around the country, and I'm asking people's advice, then I'm going to be proposing a specific plan. You know, President Kennedy said in his inauguration that he wanted to have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Well, I want to have universal health care coverage by the end of my second term.

  Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.   Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada

  John Edwards on Health Care : Feb 21, 2007
  Silence is betrayal about universal healthcare-we can't wait

  Forty years ago, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech about the war in Vietnam. And he said there comes a place in America's history where silence is a betrayal, and we can no longer stand silent.

  Silence is a betrayal in America today. We cannot stand silent on 47 million of our own people who desperately need health care coverage and have no health care coverage. I am the first candidate to come out with a detailed, substantive, truly universal health care plan for every man, woman and child in America. And I want to say to you I don't want to wait six or eight years to have universal health care. I want to start putting universal health care in place as soon as I am sworn into office in January of 2009, which is what America needs. We can't wait.

  Anybody who tells you that they're going to have a universal health care plan, but they don't have to find a new revenue source to pay for it -- they might have a bridge in Brooklyn they want to sell you too.

  Click for John Edwards on other issues.   Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada

  John Edwards on Health Care : Feb 4, 2007
  Expand Medicaid & create health markets to cover uninsured

  Q: You support universal health care: What kind of plan would you propose?

  A: I will be laying out details of a universal health care plan. We want to make sure everybody's covered, we want to help middle class families with the costs, we want to try to create competition that doesn't exist today. And I think the most effective way to do that is we take the 47 million people who don't have health care coverage, we expand Medicaid, we provide subsidies for people who don't have coverage. We ask employers to play a bigger role, which means they either have to have coverage, or they have to buy into what we're calling health markets. One of the choices available in these health markets is the government plan. So people who like the idea of a single-payer insurer health plan, that is actually one of the alternatives that people can choose. We expand SCHIP; we expand Medicaid. The bottom line is we're asking everybody to share in the responsibility of making health care work in this country.

  Click for John Edwards on other issues.   Source: Meet the Press: 2007 "Meet the Candidates" series

  John Edwards on Health Care : Feb 4, 2007
  Increase taxes to pay for universal insurance

  Q: You support universal health care: noble goal, but that's 47 million more people. How much would that cost?

  A: It'd cost between $90 and $120 billion a year once it's fully implemented.

  Q: Would you be willing to raise taxes in order to help pay for this?

  A: Yes, we'll have to raise taxes. The, the only way you can pay for a health care plan is there has to be a revenue source. The revenue source I'm proposing is, is first we get rid of George Bush's tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year. And then, we need to do a much better job of collecting the taxes that are already owed.

  Q: But you'd be willing to increase taxes to provide health care?

  A: Yes, absolutely.

  Q: What about Social Security and Medicare? If we do nothing, you'll have to raise taxes by a third to meet those demands of the entitlement programs.

  A: Yes. Well, we have a huge challenge on this front. I think the starting place is Medicare, not Social Security, simply because Social Security is longer.

  Click for John Edwards on other issues.   Source: Meet the Press: 2007 "Meet the Candidates" series

  Sam Brownback on Social Security : Feb 2, 2007
  Voted to stop the raid on the Social Security Trust Fund

  The Club for Growth supports entitlement reforms that enable personal ownership of retirement and healthcare programs, benefit from market returns, and diminish dependency on government. Senator Brownback has been an outspoken and brave supporter of Social Security reform:
  • In 2006, he voted to stop the raid on the Social Security Trust Fund (Roll Call #68, 03/16/06).
  • In 2004, he co-sponsored the Ryan-Sununu bill to reform Social Security by allowing for large personal savings accounts (Brownback press release, 09/28/04).
  • On the other hand, Senator Brownback voted for and was an outspoken supporter of the 2003 Medicare prescription drug plan (Roll Call #459, 11/25/03), which created a massive unfunded entitlement program, costing over $400 billion over ten years and totaling 1,162 pages in regulatory minutia (Heritage.org, Backgrounder #1860, 06/14/05).
  Click for Sam Brownback on other issues.   Source: Club for Growth, "Second Presidential White Paper"

  Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Feb 2, 2007
  I have the expertise to achieve universal healthcare for all

  We are going to provide quality, affordable, universal healthcare coverage to every single American! I learned a lot about what we need to do to get it done. There's a big difference between calling for it, impassioned speeches about it, presenting legislation that embodies your hopes and dreams, and another thing to put together the political coalition to actually make it happen. Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.   Source: Speech at Democratic National Committee winter meeting

  John Edwards on Health Care : Feb 1, 2007
  We need universal health insurance

  We have to stop letting the health insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical concerns decide our nation's health care policy. We have to give the silent victims, who stand in line at free clinics and use the expired medicines of friends and neighbors, we have to give them the dignity of universal health care. Will you stand up for universal health insurance in America? Click for John Edwards on other issues.   Source: Campaign website, johnedwards.com

  Mike Gravel on Health Care : Jan 1, 2007
  Citizen Power includes universal health care

  Gravel authored a book titled Citizen Power in which he advocated the implementation of numerous populist ideas, including public financing of elections, a progressive tax with no deductions or exemptions, universal health care, and school vouchers. The book also contained the complete text of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the complete platform adopted by the Populist Party during the 1892 presidential election. Click for Mike Gravel on other issues.   Source: Wikipedia.org article, "Mike Gravel"

  Mike Gravel on Social Security : Dec 25, 2006
  Put real money in the Trust Fund & invest it properly

  The Gravel Agenda: When elected President by the American people, I will:
  • Stop Congress from raiding the Social Security Trust Fund;
  • Reform Social Security by putting real money in the Trust Fund, investing it properly and identifying the interests of individual beneficiaries so that they can leave their surplus in the fund to their heirs;
  • Initiate a Universal Single Payer Healthcare Plan;
  • Enact Universal Health Care covering all Americans from birth to death.
  Click for Mike Gravel on other issues.   Source: Campaign website, www.gravel2008.us, "Issues"

  Hillary Clinton on Health Care : Dec 12, 2006
  1997: Helped found State Children's Health Insurance Program

  As First Lady, I worked with members of Congress in creating the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in the summer of 1997. It made a tremendous investment in the expansion of children's health insurance, and it has had tremendous results. Today, because of SCHIP the number of children who lack health insurance coverage has dropped from over 10 million in 1995 to some 8.3 million kids in 2005. However, the number of uninsured have grown in the general population over the last 10 years. Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.   Source: 2006 intro to It Takes A Village, by H. Clinton, p.302

  Newt Gingrich on Health Care : Dec 1, 2006
  Market competition yields more health choice at lower prices

  Health care has been wrongly insulated from the competition that brings about higher productivity and lower cost. The issue is not that health care is different. In fact, when there is a commercial market in health care, prices behave much as they do in any industry. For example, everyone has watched the cost of laser eye surgery decline as it has grown more common, more convenient, and safer.

  The lesson of nearly four hundred years of entrepreneurial, technology and science-based free market capitalism is very clear. You should expect to get more choices of higher quality at falling prices. This is the opposite of the rationing mentality of some left-wing politicians and the scarcity mentality of too many bureaucrats.

  We need to bring these concepts into health and health care. We must insist that doctors, hospitals, medical technologies, and drugs have both quality and cost information available on-line so people can make informed decisions.

  Click for Newt Gingrich on other issues.   Source: Gingrich Communications website, www.newt.org

  Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Nov 7, 2006
  Streamlined national health insurance as Enhanced Medicare

  The current profit-driven system, dominated by private insurance firms & their bureaucracies, has failed. We must establish streamlined national health insurance, Enhanced Medicare for All. It would be publicly-financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients & doctors back in control of the system. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, & alternative and complementary medicine. Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.   Source: 2006 Congressional campaign website, www.kucinich.us

  Barack Obama on Health Care : Oct 1, 2006
  The market alone can't solve our health-care woes

  President Clinton took a stab at creating a system of universal coverage, but was stymied. Since then, public debate has been deadlocked.

  Given the money we spend on health care, we should be able to provide basic coverage to everyone. But we have to contain costs, including Medicare and Medicaid.

  The market alone cannot solve the problem--in part because the market has proven incapable of creating large enough insurance pools to keep costs to individuals affordable. Overall, 20% of all patients account for 80% of the care, and if we can prevent disease or manage their effects, we can dramatically improve outcomes and save money.

  With the money saved through increased preventive care and lower administrative and malpractice costs, we would provide a subsidy to low-income families and immediately mandate coverage for all uninsured children.

  There is no easy fix, but the point is that if we commit to making sure everyone has decent care, there are ways to do it.

  Click for Barack Obama on other issues.   Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.183-185

  Barack Obama on Social Security : Oct 1, 2006
  Stock market risk is ok, but not for Social Security

  If the guiding philosophy behind the traditional system of social insurance could be described as "We're all in it together," the philosophy behind Bush's Ownership Society seems to be, "You're on your own." Relying on the magic of the marketplace is a tempting idea, elegant in its simplicity. But it won't work.

  Take the Administration's attempt to privatize Social Security. The Administration argues that the stock market can provide individuals a better return on investment, and in the aggregate they are right; historically, the stock market outperforms Social Security's cost of living adjustment. But individual investment decisions will always produce winners and losers. What would the Ownership Society do with the losers?

  That doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage individuals to pursue higher-risk, higher-return investment strategies. They should. It just means that they should do so with savings other than those put into Social Security.

  Click for Barack Obama on other issues.   Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.178-179

  John McCain on Health Care : Jun 10, 2006
  No mandated universal system; no mandated insurance coverage

  McCain says he thinks affordable health care can be made available to all Americans without a mandated universal system. McCain said that he doesn't think government-run systems such as those in Canada and in Europe will succeed in the US. "I think it's a warmed-over proposal that we rejected back in the early 1990s and I'm certainly not interested in raising people's taxes," McCain said, adding he also is opposed to requiring everyone to buy health insurance coverage. "We've got to make health care affordable and available. There's plenty of ways to do that."

  He said he's been working on a plan "for a long time" but "it's a very tough issue." One way, he said, would be to expand community health centers and the S-CHIP program, offer tax incentives for poor people, put health care online, medical malpractice reform and promote health savings accounts. However, he said, one problem getting everyone covered "is there's a lot of healthy Americans that say I just don't want health insurance.

  Click for John McCain on other issues.   Source: United Press International, "McCain sees room"

  Mitt Romney on Health Care : Apr 28, 2006
  State universal coverage plan is national test case

  Massachusetts has become the pioneer in universal coverage [via Romney's] plan for radically restructuring the health-care financing system. One piece is subsidizing low-income families' purchase of private health insurance, instead of reimbursing hospitals for treating the uninsured. The other big idea creates an insurance exchange-a public bank that will collect the premiums from individuals and pass them on to their chosen insurers-so individuals can buy health insurance with pretax dollars.

  The program's passage with overwhelming bipartisan support is a notable achievement. It remains to be seen how many uninsured people actually order policies. Romney remarked, "I wish I were going to be governor the next five years to see it through," but he will step down at the end of this year and is preparing to seek the presidency. Meanwhile, his health plan gives him a unique calling card-and provides the country with an important opportunity to test one possible solution to a vexing problem.

  Click for Mitt Romney on other issues.   Source: 2008 speculation: Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, "Gore Redux"

  Barack Obama on Health Care : Oct 12, 2004
  Crises happen in our lives and healthcare is necessary

  The use of generics is important, as the chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee I've continually encouraged the use of generic drugs at the state level. Part of the problem and the reason we're not using generic drugs as much as we should is because we have a convoluted set of patent laws that allow drug companies to change the shape or color of the tablet, and as a consequence, renew their patents and block generic drugs from coming onto the market. It does make sense for us to encourage preventative care and improve our health and lifestyles. A father in Galesburg that I met who had just lost his job, just got his pink slip, and whose son had just had a liver transplant, and he's trying to figure out how does he pay $4,200 a month in immunosuppressant drugs in order to keep his son alive. A liver transplant is not solvable by better health. Crises happen in our lives. To the extent possible, we should control costs when we can and expand affordability and accessibility of healthcare. Click for Barack Obama on other issues.   Source: IL Senate Debate, Illinois Radio Network

  Barack Obama on Health Care : Sep 28, 2004
  Believes health care is a right, not a privilege for the few

  Obama believes health care is a right for everyone, not a privilege for the few. He has made affordable health care a priority - he delivered coverage to an additional 20,000 children and 65,000 parents in Illinois and sponsored a bill to protect the uninsured from price gouging. He has proposed a detailed health plan that covers every child in America, allows those near retirement to buy into Medicare, and ensures coverage for those losing jobs through no fault of their own. Click for Barack Obama on other issues.   Source: Campaign website, ObamaForIllinois.org, "On the Issues"

  John Edwards on Health Care : Aug 10, 2004
  Provide a bonus for states to get children insured

  Kids will be signed up automatically at hospitals, community health centers, and schools. And $5 billion in enrollment bonuses will be available to states as an incentive to find uninsured children and keep them covered. Children do not choose their parents and whether to have health insurance. Children deserve a good start - with both high quality education and health care. Under our plan, every child in America will have health insurance, and every parent will have a little more peace of mind. Click for John Edwards on other issues.   Source: [X-ref Kerry] Our Plan For America , p.103

  John Edwards on Health Care : Aug 10, 2004
  It is morally wrong to leave so many Americans uninsured

  It is morally wrong to tolerate an America with so many uninsured and underinsured Americans. Working Americans who do not have health insurance live in the neighborhoods we call home. We see them every day behind the counter and around the corner. They build America's houses, run our small businesses, bag our groceries, and care for our elderly and our kids. And some American families, more than others, tend to fall through the cracks of our health care coverage system. Click for John Edwards on other issues.   Source: [X-ref Kerry] Our Plan For America , p.101

  Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Feb 26, 2004
  Not socialism, but a change from predatory capitalism

  Q: On health care?

  KUCINICH: My proposal is to have a universal single-payer, not-for-profit health care system, because that would lift tens of millions of Americans out of poverty.

  Q: Harry Truman proposed that in 1948.

  KUCINICH: Well, and you know what? John Conyers and I introduced the bill in this Congress. And that would provide all coverage for everyone, all medically necessary procedures, plus vision care, dental care, mental health care, and long-term care.

  Q: In other words, socialism?

  KUCINICH: What we have now is predatory capitalism which makes of the American people a cash crop for the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies. And so I'm talking about a change.

  Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.   Source: Democratic 2004 primary debate at USC

  Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Feb 26, 2004
  Single-payer isn't in platform because it offends donors

  KUCINCIH: Washington right now is controlled by the insurance interests and by the pharmaceutical companies. I went to our Democratic platform committee with a proposal for universal single-payer health care. And it was quickly shot down because it offended some of the contributors to our party. We must be ready to take up this challenge of bringing health care to all the American people. Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.   Source: Democratic 2004 primary debate at USC

  Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Jan 29, 2004
  Not-for-profit system differs from Hillary's pro-HMO system

  Q: Why is there so much resistance on the part of your colleagues to going to a single-payer system? Is it the Hillary factor?

  A: No. What Senator Clinton was proposing was really more HMOs, and the competition in the insurance industry caused so many people in the insurance industry to be afraid of it. My proposal shifts the whole system into a not-for-profit system. It eliminates these corporate profits and stock options and executive salaries, the advertising, lobbying, marketing costs.

  Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.   Source: Democratic 2004 primary Debate in Greenville SC

  Bill Richardson on Health Care : Jan 20, 2004
  Increase access to affordable health care

  I have two defining goals in health-care reform: decrease the number of uninsured New Mexicans - and increase access to affordable health care for all. Health care is a shared responsibility of governments, employers and individuals and their families. It will not be quick and it will not be easy, but we must have the best efforts of everybody involved in health care - from consumers to HMO executives - if we are to find ways to attain my goals of wider coverage and greater access. Click for Bill Richardson on other issues.   Source: State of the State speech to the New Mexico Legislature

  Dennis Kucinich on Health Care : Nov 4, 2003
  I'm not selling insurance-switch to not-for-profit system

  Q: What makes your single-payer health care proposal different than other candidates' universal health insurance?

  A: Many of the other candidates say they want to make sure all Americans have health insurance. I am not selling insurance. I want to create a system which makes it possible for all Americans to have health care. This means we must move from a for-profit health care system which is controlled by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, to a not-for-profit system. This is the essence of my proposal for Universal Health care, Medicare for All. A single payer system, it is embodied in legislation, HR 676. This fundamental change in our health care system will provide all Americans with access to quality health care. Whether you are working or not, you will be covered. The scope of coverage will include all medically necessary procedures, dental health care,