EDWARDS' HEALTH-CARE PLAN FOCUSES ON CHILDREN

[chimpymustgo]

(07/28/03) U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina today will propose a new set of tax breaks and other initiatives to make it easier and more affordable for parents to provide health insurance for their children -- and require that they do so.

As part of his long-awaited health-care plan, the Democratic White House aspirant will suggest during a speech today in New Hampshire that the government should force parents to provide insurance to all children under age 21.

"When parents bring a child into this world, they have a responsibility to provide food, clothing, shelter, education, and love," Edwards says in remarks prepared for delivery today at a community health center in Manchester. "Every parent wants to do the right thing for his or her child. I believe health insurance should be one of those responsibilities, and I want to help parents fulfill this new requirement."

Edwards' plan, which also includes new government subsidies for adults with modest incomes, would help an additional 21 million Americans get insurance at a cost of $53 billion per year, his campaign said. His plan is both less costly and claims to cover fewer of the 41 million uninsured Americans than those put forward earlier this year by some of his rivals.

"My plan will guide this nation in a direction that is right," Edwards says in his remarks. "It takes care of our most vulnerable, our children, and adults most desperately in need. And it does so in a way that families and the country can afford."

Edwards' plan also includes cost-containment measures that save roughly $17 billion a year, his campaign said. These includes steps to curb rising prescription-drug costs and to hasten the transition from paper to electronic records at medical facilities.

As part of a plan that targets "children first," Edwards would offer $25 billion in new tax credits to help parents buy insurance from their employers or through the existing Children's Health Insurance Program, a joint federal-state initiative geared toward working-class families.

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http://www.newsobserver.com/edwards/
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Good plan. Comprehensive for kids and affordable.

[ThorsteinVeblen]

1. Too bad Edwards war plans didn't focus on children too:

Iraqi children, the ones that were torn to shreds, whose arms were blown off and suffered with 3rd degree burns over 98% of their bodies.

[chimpymustgo]

2. I'm sorry about that vote, but he's got a great record on everything else.

And a good health care plan.

[ThorsteinVeblen]

3. We will not win 2004 on Domestic Issues.

2004 will be about who has the best vision of an international America.