Kennedy to Propose Universal Healthcare Program
"We have it in our power to make the fundamental human right to health care a reality for all Americans," Kennedy says in a draft of the speech released last night that criticizes President Bush's own health care plans, including some outlined Tuesday in his State of the Union address. "I say let's get it done -- if not this year, then next year with a new Congress and a new administration elected with a mandate to get it done."
More than 44 million Americans have no health insurance, but previous proposals to provide universal coverage have fallen flat. Even strong advocates said the new plan would likely face the same fate this year.
"It's clearly designed to build on what works today, rather than creating new bureaucracies or organizational structures," said Ronald Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national advocacy group. "It's a thoughtful proposal that could work. But I think President Bush's record makes clear that building on employer-provided coverage and providing meaningful subsidies is not something he's likely to support."
Under the proposal, which Kennedy said he will call the Health Security and Affordability Act, large employers and prosperous small employers would be required to pay 75 percent of the cost of employees' health insurance. Other workers and individuals not covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or programs for children could join a National Health Benefits Program with subsidized premiums modeled on the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program.
Get the rest of this story from the Boston Globe.
Matt's Chat
Wait a minute (or, hold it a minizzle)...I thought the Democrats were supposed to be concerned about the deficit. Why would the liberal senator from Massachusetts be pimping a $100 BILLION a year federal quagmire? Good luck, Senator...by the way, have the voices in your head stopped speaking to you? Have another drink, that'll help...Mark's Remarks
Oh, I see, it is a case of business footing 75% of the bill. FOLKS, PAY CLOSE ATTENTION. Business will not foot that bill: WE WILL. That is right, you and I, the individual, because businesses will pass the cost on to us, which means that nice new laptop that was 1500 will now be 2500-3000 dollars. That car which was 9995, will now be 17,000. Businesses never pay costs, the consumers do. So, in effect, Teddy Boy is trying to impose a hidden tax on us the citizens of the United States by making businesses foot the bill which we already know they cannot afford.
The secret to affordable health insurance lies not in socialized medicine. That only leads to long delays in care and medicine lines (look at the former Soviet Union). The secret is in sticking it to the trial lawyers who are making billions with frivolous lawsuits. That is the key to affordable insurance, sticking it to those who engage in frivolous lawsuits.
And, Matt, liberals will slash the military. We will cut off military improvements for the sake of this pie in the sky proposal, and we will become weak again, and we will have a more catastrophic incident than 9/11. That is what happens when liberals take over. They think they will through talking really really nice to people and giving them weapons and money and influence we will make them like us. They do not understand that America is hated not because we are rich, not because we are decadent, not because we have money. We are hated because we are free. We open our arms to the world and say, this is what we are, and we would like you all to be as free as us. The folks who want to control the world (many of them liberal socialists) don't like that. They want to hurt the US through charges of decadence and greed (the US is the world's biggest giver through foreign aid, by the way), and through propaganda to get us to hate ourselves. Sadly, they mindscrewed the libs, who are like little impressionable children. Woe upon us if we let them take control. This healthcare plan is full of holes, by Mr. Kennedy, in fact bigger than the hole in his alibi from Chappaquitick, bigger than the rip in his pants he gets when he bends over. This plan is just watered down Hillarycare, and we individual Americans will bear the brunt of this. Don't let it happen.
This was Mark...Thanks for reading.
