Kerry Decries Bush's Health Care Policies

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43302-2005Jan27.html

Kerry Decries Bush's Health Care Policies

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2005; Page A06


Sen. John F. Kerry delivered a stinging indictment of the Bush administration's health care policies yesterday, saying the president is embracing the wrong values by leaving millions of Americans without health insurance.

In his first major Washington speech since losing the Nov. 2 election, Kerry (D-Mass.) mocked some of President Bush's signature programs and called on the government to provide medical coverage to every American child. Although the senator told well-wishers it was "way too early" to discuss another possible presidential bid, his heavily promoted speech at the Mayflower Hotel had the look and feel of a campaign appearance.

"In the United States of America, we shouldn't have to rely on a faith-based initiative for health care," Kerry said in his luncheon address to Families USA, a consumer advocacy group. "Some people like to talk about mandates, but I say to you that I think the mandate is children."

As if there were any doubt that Kerry was engaging Bush head-on, he added: "Today the president . . . is addressing this issue of health care in Ohio. But his effort, I regret to say to you, is the same window dressing, the same avoidance of reality that we've seen throughout the last four years."
<snip>

She (Clinton) urged Congress to resist White House proposals to convert some of Medicaid's federal funding into block grants, which she called "artificial caps" on spending. "Block grants are a bad idea from nearly every angle," Clinton said, "particularly what they will do to the health care safety net that we have constructed over the last 40 years."<snip>