Edwards calls healthcare access in U.S. 'shameful' for a country that can do better

[JohnLocke]

Edwards in Wise, calls healthcare access in U.S. 'shameful' for a country that can do better
By Steve Igo--Kingsport Times-News
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
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Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards called for universal healthcare during a Wednesday visit to the Wise County site of this weekend's Rural Area Medical Health Expedition.

Edwards' visit was part of a three-day, 1,800-mile “The Road To One America” tour to address national poverty issues. Access to affordable healthcare is a shameful aspect of a nation that should and could do much better by its citizens, Edwards said.

“How can we live with this in America?” Edwards said of the feeble state of healthcare access during an outdoor roundtable discussion featuring local doctors and other providers, and two past recipients of RAM services. “This is not OK.”

Wednesday’s discussion was “not just to identify the challenges” of healthcare access issues, Edwards said. “The challenges do not define the people of this area,” he said, rather rural Americans define themselves with their resilience, work and moral ethic, and courage.

St. Mary’s Health Wagon Director Teresa Gardner told Edwards and the national media in attendance at the event that “we are a proud people (who) take ownership of our problems.”

She said the region has “our share” of socio-economic and other problems, “but we feel the larger problem is a national problem” regarding access to affordable healthcare.

Two-thirds of the people who avail themselves of free health services at the annual RAM event have jobs but no health insurance, Gardner told Edwards. Of the thousands who flock to RAM every summer for free services, she said 60 percent come from places other than Wise County, including other states like Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and the Carolinas.


http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9002094

[MannyGoldstein]

1. So Why Doesn't He Back Medicare For All?

It's the only system that has ever proven to cut costs and increase quality of care. Anything else is a fraud or a dangerous experiment.