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"Today, quality health care for all stands only as the great bare business of 20th century progressive social legislation," and "we must now pull in that our failed health care system is non just a moral challenge -- it's a major economic liability, too," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) writes in an opinion piece in The Hill. According to Kerry, the "Democratic platform reflects the world that devising affordable, meaningful health guardianship a right for all -- non a exclusive right for some -- is essential to our economic future."
The U.S. spends $2 1000000000000 on wellness care yearly, but 47 million residents lack health insurance, Kerry writes, adding, "While going away millions of Americans uninsured might appear to write money, the inefficient maintenance that the uninsured do receive taxes the entire health care system and economy," and results in a "destructive dynamic in which high gear costs lead to more uninsured Americans and more uninsured Americans contribute to higher costs."
In response, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and other Democrats have proposed to guarantee that "every American has access to an low-priced health project that's portable and just as beneficial as the one their member of Congress has," and to "attack monetary value by modernizing health concern delivery, reduction waste, investment in information technology and controlling the cost of catastrophic sickness," according to Kerry. He writes, "That is our plan -- rooted in a deep understanding of our current health care system, a belief in smart policy that emphasizes the intersection of economic self-interest and shared duty, and reflective of years spent hearing to the American people."
Meanwhile, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) "has dusted off George Bush's so-called 'ownership society' -- and claimed it as his own" -- and his health caution plan "could force 160 million Americans to chip in up their current grouping health insurance and instead use an insufficient tax break to purchase a new single plan in a market place that regularly discriminates against the mad and the elderly," Kerry writes (Kerry, The Hill, 8/25).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.