[Peace-discuss] Democrats & health care

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The following is from Sam Smith's Progressive Review.  --CGE]

OBAMA OFFERS FAKE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE PLAN

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday offered a 
sweeping health care plan that would provide every citizen a means for 
coverage and calls on government, businesses and consumers to share the 
costs of the program. Obama said his plan could save the average 
consumer $2,500 a year and bring health care to all. Campaign aides 
estimated the cost of the program at $50 billion to $65 billion a year, 
financed largely by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy that are 
scheduled to expire. President Bush wants to make those cuts permanent...

Obama's plan retains the private insurance system but injects additional 
money to pay for expanding coverage. It would also create a National 
Health Insurance Exchange to monitor insurance companies in offering the 
coverage. Those who can't afford coverage would get a subsidy on a 
sliding scale depending on their income, and virtually all businesses 
would have to share in the cost of coverage for their workers. The plan 
is similar to the one covering members of Congress.

The plan doesn't have the mandate that rival Democratic candidate John 
Edwards is proposing to ensure that all Americans get coverage. The 2004 
Democratic vice presidential nominee would require everyone to have 
health insurance, much like state requirements for auto insurance for 
every driver. Both candidates would require businesses to help cover 
their workers.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who oversaw a massive but 
unsuccessful project to overhaul the nation's health care system while 
she was first lady, has promised universal health care but has yet to 
provide specifics.

PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - Obama thus joins Edwards in offering a health plan 
that leaves the insurance companies ripping off the country and avoids 
the obvious solution of a single pay program. Meanwhile, the New Jersey 
Industrial Union Council has endorsed HR 676, a single payer health care 
health care bill introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The 
council represents 300,000 union members and retirees and follows the 
endorsement of the bill by 274 union organizations in 43 states 
including 75 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 18 
state AFL-CIOs.

As Kal Swift of the Green Party has put it, "Hillary Clinton, Barack 
Obama, John Edwards, and other prominent Democrats are the greatest 
obstacle to universal health coverage. Except for a few mavericks like 
Rep. John Conyers [D-Mich.], who has regularly introduced single-payer 
bills, Democrats have joined Republicans in favoring HMO and insurance 
corporations over guaranteed publicly-financed quality health care for 
every American. It's a safe bet that the 2008 Democratic nominee will -- 
like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry before them -- follow the 
same pattern."

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