Posted on 09/19/2004 9:10:02 AM PDT by Brilliant
ROCHESTER, Minn., Sept. 16 - Using terms reminiscent of Republican attacks on President Bill Clinton's ill-fated effort to reshape the health care system a decade ago, President Bush attacked Senator John Kerry's health care proposal on Thursday, saying "it's a plan that is massive and it's big, and it puts the government in control of health care."
Mr. Bush's critique won applause from Republicans as he campaigned through Minnesota, a once reliably Democratic state that polls suggest is up for grabs in November. But his words drew a sharp rebuttal from the Kerry campaign, which said Mr. Bush was deliberately misrepresenting Mr. Kerry's plan, and from some independent analysts, who said the White House had little basis for its suggestion that Mr. Kerry was seeking to nationalize health care.
Democrats see health care as one of Mr. Bush's greatest vulnerabilities, and Mr. Kerry has made it a central issue of his domestic agenda. Since Mr. Bush took office, the number of uninsured people has risen by 5.2 million, to 45 million, and insurance premiums have risen sharply.
There are few signs that Mr. Bush has gotten the political lift he and others hoped for last year when he signed the Medicare law promising limited coverage of prescription drug costs for the elderly. But with polls suggesting that health care costs rank at or near the top of voters' concerns and with Mr. Kerry campaigning hard on his plan, Mr. Bush has struck back by suggesting that Mr. Kerry's solution would be unwieldy, costly and intrusive.
"The nationalization of health care would be wrong for the American citizen," Mr. Bush told an audience in Blaine, Minn., standing beneath a banner that read "Affordable Health Care."
Recent polls in Minnesota have given divergent readings about which presidential candidate is ahead, and both sides agreed that the state would be closely fought. But even as he traveled through Minnesota, Mr. Bush had an eye on Florida, another highly contested state, and Hurricane Ivan. At the end of the day, the White House announced that Mr. Bush would fly to Florida and Alabama on Sunday to see the hurricane damage and clean-up efforts.
Tad Devine, a senior strategist for Mr. Kerry, told reporters in a conference call that Mr. Bush had "demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth" in the way he characterized Mr. Kerry's health plan.
Mr. Kerry's plan would encourage employers to offer health insurance by having the government subsidize the cost of catastrophic claims - those over $50,000 - for businesses that provide coverage to their employees. His plan would also give more children access to health care by raising the income cutoff for Medicaid and state-run programs.
"It is very pro-business, it is very pro-consumer and it is voluntary," said Sarah Bianchi, policy director for the Kerry campaign.
Mr. Bush's plan would offer tax breaks for low- and middle-income families to help them buy health insurance. It would also make it easier for small businesses to band together to buy health plans in big groups, presumably helping them negotiate reduced rates. Mr. Bush would also expand health savings accounts, which allow workers who buy policies with high deductibles to set up tax-free savings accounts to pay out-of-pocket expenses.
Mr. Bush also calls for limits on lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, saying excessive malpractice awards push up costs and drive some doctors out of the business.
"I have a common-sense, practical plan to make high-quality health care more affordable and more accessible," Mr. Bush told a rally in St. Cloud, Minn.
Mr. Kerry has put the cost of his plan at $653 billion over the next 10 years, and has said that to pay for it he would roll back Mr. Bush's tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year. Campaigning Thursday, Mr. Bush cited a study by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization, that put the price tag of the Kerry plan at $1.5 trillion. The Kerry campaign said that estimate ignored some features of the plan, double-counted others and used flawed methodology.
Despite Mr. Bush's efforts to draw an implicit link between the Clinton health care plan and Mr. Kerry's proposal, some experts said there was no real comparison.
"What Kerry is proposing is like the renovation of a house, whereas Clinton was advocating completely rebuilding the structure,'' said Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, who as director of the Congressional Budget Office in 1994 scrutinized the Clinton plan.
Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research group, said Mr. Bush was proposing a bigger change in the nation's approach to health coverage than Mr. Kerry was.
Mr. Bush had to grapple with one particularly difficult issue in Minnesota, the dispute over whether to allow the importation of lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada, a practice that even some Republicans in the state say should be allowed. The White House has put off taking a final stand on the issue by saying it was studying whether it could allow the practice without putting patients at risk. Mr. Bush said he would work to speed approval of generic drugs to help reduce costs.
The Kerry campaign said Thursday that it would begin broadcasting a commercial calling Mr. Bush's characterizations "not true" and asserting that Mr. Bush was "wrong on health care."
Mr. Devine said the engagement would work to Mr. Kerry's advantage by shifting the campaign to an issue on which he had a clear advantage. "The president's decision to attack John Kerry on health care is a costly strategic mistake," he said.
Richard W. Stevenson reported from Rochester for this article, and Robin Toner from Washington.
Mr. Devine said the engagement would work to Mr. Kerry's advantage by shifting the campaign to an issue on which he had a clear advantage. "The president's decision to attack John Kerry on health care is a costly strategic mistake," he said.
If it's bad for Bush to talk about the issues, then why the heck has Kerry been hiding from the issues? If Kerry is going to do nothing but repeat slogans, such as "W stands for wrong," then he might as well fall on his sword now.
The fact that John Kerry wants the government to take control of 1/7th of the US GDP should come as no surprise to anyone.
this is going to force many out of their private health care plans and damage our economy badly.
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