John Kerry's position on

Health Care: With the population both aging and growing, affordable health care is an issue that concerns everyone, especially with 45 million individuals being uninsured in 2003 (AEI link) 

Description of candidate's position: Kerry argues that there is unequal access to health care, and advocates using the federal system to correct the system. As an alternative Bush's HSAs, Kerry advocates a Congressional Health Plan (CHP) which would allow individuals better and cheaper insurance as well as proposing a Patient's Bill of Rights, which Bush opposes. The rights bill would include things such as right to emergency visits, specialists, and protections for health care workers to report problems Link Other reforms include cutting family premiums as much as $1000, subsidizing private employers' insurance to induce employers to cover all employees, and expanding Medicare and SCHIP at the state level, with federal subsidies, to uninsured children, families, and individuals living below the poverty line (up to 300% below). AEI link

Quotation from the candidate: "John Edwards and I will set a new direction […] George W. Bush believes when it comes to Medicare, the big drug companies come first, the insurance companies come second and seniors come last. Well I'm going to put you first. Medicare doesn't belong to the special interests, it belongs to you. You paid for it. We have a plan for a real prescription drug benefit for seniors, to cut the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans and to make health care affordable and available for everyone in this country." September 10, 2004 Link 

Assessment of the proposal:

Positive: Ronald F. Pollack, executive director of Families USA--a national nonpartisan organization for health care consumers, supports Kerry's proposal. "Kerry's proposal would substantially reduce the number of people who are uninsured, cover all children, boost employer-sponsored coverage, and correct some of the real problems in Medicaid and SCHIPs […]Bush's plan, on the other hand, is insurance that doesn't really insure." Link

Negative: Michael Cannon, director of health studies at Cato Institute, criticizes Kerry's plan for the following reasons: it raises the cost of private insurance, will not increase coverage while nationalizing health care coverage. Indeed, Rand Health did a study of state based health alliances, such as Kerry's proposal and found that they did not increase number of small businesses offering insurance or decrease their premiums. Thus, these problems would only become nationalized. Link

Comparison: Kerry's strategy involves a larger federal program on health care, while Bush uses individual tax credits for HSAs and high-deductible insurance. Comparisons Link In terms of cost, Kerry's proposal costs more, but insures more&emdash;including more people under the poverty line. The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research recently completed a study on both candidate's health care proposals and found that Kerry's plan will have 27.3 million more people insured, costing $1.5 trillion (2006-2015) with $622 billion to the uninsured. Bush's plan will have 6.7 million more people insured, costing $128.6 billion (2006-2015) with $39.4 billion to the uninsured. Report link

Link to Bush's issue page