[Jeff Blogworthy]

I just attended a debate last night between Paul Begala and Fred Barnes. In this debate, Begala described Kerry Health Care as a "conservative plan" that has been "praised by Newt Gingrich." I have not been able to find where Newt Gingrich praised the Kerry plan and I find that a little hard to believe. If anybody has info about that please reply. Thanks.

[Jeff Blogworthy]

Thanks for the graphic. I got an answer to my question via a Newt Gingrich spokesman:

Begala's wording is a bit of a stretch, to say the least.

He's most likely referring to Newt's comments in The Hill saying that Kerry's plan on disease management would probably save money. However, Begala may have missed the next sentence which noted Newt criticized the entire plan for relying too much on the federal government.

Here's the bottom line: Kerry's plan does next to nothing to actually fix the healthcare problems in this country. All it does is shift a greater percentage of its rapidly expanding costs to the federal government. In the long run, this only makes the problem worse, not better.

Newt believes in a consumer-driven healthcare system. He believes that health savings accounts are a major step in starting this transformation and that the President's healthcare plan will encourage more people to open these accounts. In fact, Newt was a major force in convincing Republicans in Washington to vote for Bush's Medicare bill last year, because it created HSAs.

Kerry actually opposes health savings accounts so the idea of Newt praising Kerry's plan is very misleading.

Any of your readers seeking to learn more about a consumer driven healthcare system should visit The Center for Health Transformation website: www.healthtransformation.net

Joe DeSantis Deputy Communications Director Gingrich Communications