A recent poll from a non-profit healthcare think-tank, Kaiser Family Foundation surprised public opinion watchers. It showed that Americans are more concerned about healthcare coverage than they are about losing their jobs, paying rent, – even falling victim to a terrorist attack.
The Democratic primary candidates are picking up on those national worries, and promising to fix the nation’s broken healthcare system once and for all.
NHPR’s Raquel Maria Dillon has more.
Everyone knows the much-repeated mantra of Clinton’s 1992 presidential race. “It’s the economy, stupid.” That was just the first line on a sign that hung in that campaign’s war room. There were two others: “Change, not more of the same. And don’t forget healthcare.”
The 2004 Democratic presidential candidates have taken that last one to heart:
CANDIDATE MONTAGE 1:00
KERRY :20 Applause. I’m gonna offer in next weeks and months a plan that will end this absurdity of the USA being the only industrial country on planet that does not have health insurance for all its citizens. We need to provide universal healthcare for every citizen in this country…
DEAN :16 Applause. Harry Truman in 1948 put universal health insurance in Democratic party platform. And 50 years later we’re still afraid to do it. I want health insurance for every man woman and child in this country. Applause.
GEPHARDT :09 this is the most powerful country in the world. No one should live in terror because they don’t have insurance to take care of their family. Applause.
That was Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, Vermont’s former-Governor Howard Dean, and Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt.
In addition to the campaign trail rhetoric, the candidates are promising to cover the uninsured, lower prescription drug prices, and pass a patients’ bill of rights.
Howard Dean was the first to put healthcare front and center. He modeled his national proposal on the children’s health insurance program he devised for Vermont. He would provide incentives for other states to expand their Medicaid programs and include teenagers and young adults under the age of 23.
DEAN :16 between 18 and 23 you’re in college, or working w/o benefits. 20 year olds never wanna go to Doctor. It’s very inexpensive to insure them but if you give them voucher to buy health insurance they’ll buy a Harley instead and then they will have to go to the doctor.
That approach seems to have worked in Vermont, which has the lowest percentage of uninsured children nationwide. But critics say Dean’s strategy would be less effective in other parts of the country where there’s inner-city poverty and more ethnic minorities, and in big states that measure their current budget short-falls in the Billions.
Kaiser Family Foundation President Drew Altman says Dean’s goal is universal coverage, but he takes an incremental approach.
ALTMAN :11 It’s a practical approach, stitching together diff programs and building on existing programs. Typical of governor they tend to be less ideological and more practical.
Practical, but pricey. Dean says he’ll pay for his proposal by rolling back the Bush tax cut.
That’s also where Dick Gephardt would find the money to pay for his proposal. He wants to require all employers to provide health insurance to their workers.
GEPHARDT :23 It’s not a big government plan, not national health insurance. Treating all employees in the same fair way. Saying to every employer in country, we want you to give access to your employees to healthcare. And we’ll give you generous tax credits to get it done.
Gephardt’s staff says those tax credits might reimburse employers for 60% of the cost of insurance. Currently, businesses can write off about 35%. Again, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Drew Altman.
ALTMAN 52/:00-22 It’s an expensive plan, he has years of dealing with intricacies of issue, both substance and politics.
Gephardt was behind Clinton’s comprehensive healthcare plan back in 1992. But he says he’s learned his lesson – that the American public is somewhat allergic to big government solutions.
This time around, only Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich is calling for a single payer system – Medicare for everyone. For the rest of the candidates, the buzzword seems to be universal health coverage.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry wants prescription drugs covered under Medicare.
North Carolina Senator John Edwards is focusing on passing a patients bill of rights and controlling the cost of prescription drugs.
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman bashed President Bush’s Medicare reform plan, but hasn’t talked about healthcare very much on the stump.
At this point, most of the candidates’ plans look similar. They all want prescription drug coverage, healthy children, and more people covered by health insurance.
But the various proposals are far from complete. The candidates are advertising their plans but not talking about price tags yet.
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Drew Altman says healthcare resonates with Democrats, but the proposals are likely to evolve in the next year or so, as the candidates struggle to distinguish themselves.
ALTMAN :21 one of struggles that they’ll have is the positions they take to solidify support among more liberal democratic base may be different from position it takes to take on successfully Bush in general election with more conservative voting public.
It’s here in New Hampshire that the candidates will first pitch their proposals, hope that they resonate with the public, and gage reactions.
In the end, the Democratic nominee’s plans for healthcare will go up against those of the likely Republican nominee, George W. Bush.
President Bush says his three-tiered Medicare reform plan will allow seniors to choose a prescription drug benefit. But the plan got a mixed reaction in Congress.
In the coming months, a possible war with Iraq might take healthcare off people’s minds for a little while, but come primary season, healthcare will likely take center stage again.
For NHPR News, I’m RMD.
