Posted on 10/22/2004 6:54:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Prescription drugs and health insurance will be more affordable if Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry is elected president, his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, said Thursday during a visit to Yardley.
We have to talk about how we want to live," Heinz Kerry said to the 300 people wedged into the Yardley Community Centre for her visit.
"We've dehumanized medicine. We've devalued preventative medicine. That's not the American way."
Heinz Kerry focused mainly on her husband's plan to bring affordable health care to all Americans. She complained about the high cost of prescription drugs and blamed U.S. pharmaceutical companies for "gouging us everywhere."
"We should be able to import drugs from anywhere," she said. "We need to be able to negotiate drugs for price. It's awful that people not only have fear from their diseases, but they also fear going to the poorhouse. It's inhuman."
Heinz Kerry was joined by a handful of citizens facing healthcare challenges for the roundtable discussion, dubbed "A Conversation with Teresa." For almost two hours, Heinz Kerry spoke about the need for preventive health care, the plan to create a national catastrophic health insurance policy and the opportunity for all children to have access to affordable health insurance.
The small center was overflowing for Heinz Kerry's visit. Besides the estimated 300 supporters inside, another hundred waited anxiously along Main Street, hoping to get a glimpse of Heinz Kerry.
In the hour before she took the stage, excitement crackled through the room. For some audience members, like Lower Makefield resident Donald Rauh, this wasn't the first trip to see Heinz Kerry.
He met both John and Teresa at a campaign event in Philadelphia shortly after the Democratic National Convention.
"She'll be a fabulous first lady," Rauh said. "She has integrity and she really cares. Her global perspective will play a major role in healing the divide Bush has created by isolating us from the rest of the world."
Cathy Wilson came from Springfield, Delaware County, to show her support. Her left arm was in a sling, an injury suffered at a recent Kerry rally at the University of Pennsylvania.
"I fell for John," she said, laughing. "I fell down a hill."
Dan Kramer, of Lower Makefield, said he can't wait to vote for John Kerry. And as for Teresa, he thinks she'll make a wonderful first lady
"She's very intelligent and well-informed," he said. "She'll give him [John Kerry] her best advice, and hopefully he'll listen."
Heinz Kerry received several standing ovations, two before she even began her talk. Audience members waved signs with sayings like "Penna loves Teresa" and "Republicans for Kerry."
When she promised affordable health insurance for all children if her husband takes office, the entire room erupted in applause.
"We have to make health care accessible and affordable," she said through their cheers.
She also said preventive health care, starting with children, is a way to alleviate future health costs so that the United States is "not a handicapped nation."
Heinz Kerry spoke of advances in medicine and the need for stem cell research, saying that "America can be both scientifically sound and ethically moral."
Although she focused on health care, Heinz Kerry also put in a plug for congressional candidate Ginny Schrader, a Democrat running for the 8th District seat.
"You need an environmentalist," Heinz Kerry said of Schrader. "You also need a Democratic Congress back. And we need more women's voices. Not that I don't agree with men's voices, unless they're bad."
Morrisville Councilwoman Nancy Sherlock came to support both Schrader and Kerry.
"She's put a huge effort to being a strong, democratic voice in the county, and she's a woman," Sherlock said of Schrader.
Although Heinz Kerry didn't discuss the politics of the conflict in Iraq, she did talk about soldiers.
She pointed out that 7,500 soldiers have been injured in combat, while another 24,000 have suffered non-combat injuries.
"What's going to happen when they come home?" she asked. "Where is our commitment to these people?"
She ended her discussion by urging everyone to think about their family's health.
"We have to make sure health care is what we talk about and we take it in our own hands," she said. "It's important to be aware, ask questions and demand answers."
Samantha Fredrickson can be reached at 215-269-5081 or sfredrickson@phillyBurbs.com.
Kerry Care
Anyone who thinks that socialized medicine is such a good idea should be made to spend some time in a country that has it.
Give the kids some raisins soaked in rum, that'll help.
Shut up and eat your grapes
Does she not understand that pharmaceutical companies need incentivies to create new drugs? Profit is the incentive.
Her global perspective...DANGER!
Why isn't the MSM putting 2 and 2 together and implicating Tides (THK) with ACORN and the massive vote fraud that is taking over our Republic?
"We've dehumanized medicine. We've devalued preventative medicine. That's not the American way."
What the H, E, Double L does the FOREIGNER TAH-RAY_ZA know about the "American Way"? NOTHING!!!
As I recall, she decried even moving to the United States.
This Frog does NOT need to be in the Whitehouse.
If she'd ever had a job, she might know that.
She's just a shill for John.
There's all that LIBERAL guilt for having billions of dollars fall in your lap.
"She'll be a fabulous first lady," Rauh said. "She has integrity and she really cares. Her global perspective will play a major role in healing the divide Bush has created by isolating us from the rest of the world."
LOL!!!! The stupidity in some people never ceases to amaze me. We'll see what they say when we get socialized medicine and grandma gets put to pasture after her heart atack because she is over 65!! Or grandpa is told to live with his prostatic cancer because he is too old for treatment and the $$$ will be better used to increase the public assistance rolls.
I've heard sKerry say that he plans to provide the same health care received by members of Congress. The same appears on his web site. Don't they have Blue Cross/Blue Shield? Isn't that a private company? Wonder what they think about providing health care to the country...and what it will do to their business.
As for TK making a wonderful first lady, I beg to differ. I have this image in my mind of her getting into a hair-pulling fight with the wife of some foreign dignitary...
Now, that's Skerry. (Shiver...)
Looks like she's pickled! Look at Kerry Edwards Lie in ths background!
that's classic - good catch.
Kerry can't provide anything, congress has to enact legislation.
I find it laughable that they'll "give" us the kind of insurance they have. I'm sure Kerry can get any medical care he needs w/o his insurance (as I'm sure all the millionaires in the Senate can do) so his proposal to "give" us what they have is empty.
Now Edwards, I can't imagine a doctor who would want to treat him or his lawyer wife.
Bump!
He promised the same health care as the rest of congress has. I think he means the same COMPANY not the same COVERAGE. Big difference.
Stuff it in your ketchup bottle........
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