Straight Talk on McCain’s Health Care Record from Elizabeth Edwards

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/04/02/straight-talk-on-mccains-health-care-record-from-elizabeth-edwards/

by Mike Hall, Apr 2, 2008

Elizabeth Edwards says voters should take a close look at Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s plan, one she says is far from the “straight talk” McCain so frequently claims he’s all about.


Edwards’ concern over the future of the nation’s health care system is shared by most of those who, like Donna in Florida and Cathey in New York, recently took the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey. Of the more than 26,000 people who completed our survey, nearly 7,500 respondents took the time to write about their personal health care experiences. Some 79 percent of respondents say that come November, candidates who can best fix the nation’s broken health care system will be a major factor in who gets their vote.


Edwards, whose husband, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), withdrew from this year’s Democratic presidential race, weighed in on McCain’s health care reform proposals at a meeting of health care journalists last weekend and again yesterday in a blog post on the Wonk Room after McCain’s campaign accused her of not understanding McCain’s proposal. McCain’s plan is one most, experts say, recycles failed Bush administration schemes that rely on the current private insurance system. In other words, McSame.


She told the journalists that as cancer survivors, neither she nor McCain (who survived a bout with melanoma) would be covered by his health policy because insurance companies wouldn’t have to cover pre-existing conditions like breast cancer and melanoma.


His plan does not set requirements on whom insurers should cover nor what they may charge. Insurance providers routinely coverage to cancer survivors. She also pointed out that McCain’s plan would encourage insurance companies to move to states with weak consumer protection laws, to avoid new tougher laws some states have passed to protect health care consumers.


After McCain’s campaign charged Edwards with misunderstanding his plan, Edwards took to the blog world to respond. In her Wonk Room post, she writes:

I am not confused by John McCain’s health care proposal….The problem is that, despite fuzzy language and feel-good lines in the senator’s proposal, I do understand exactly how devastating it will be to people who have the health conditions with which the senator and I are confronted (melanoma for him, breast cancer for me) but do not have the financial resources we have. In very unconfusing language: they are left outside the clinic doors.


FULL story at link.

[bellasgrams]

1. Your link is leaving out the part where she said Hillary's is the

only true Universal Healthcare because it is mandated. That BO's will only cover children. She was on Morning Joe and one of the morning shows.

[alstephenson]

3. Elizabeth also said Hillary's health care plan is best on the TODAY SHOW

this morning. Then they showed clips of Barack Obama campaigning while she was speaking. WTF???

[HockeyMom]

2. Edward's health plan was a deciding factor

why I ruled him out when I was deciding on a candidate. I don't like the concept of HMO's and PPO's and his sounded too much like that.

Sorry.