The 186-member platform commission of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday in Pittsburgh voted to okay a 51-page platform that includes "guaranteed" access to affordable wellness care, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/9). The platform does not mention an individual health insurance mandate but acknowledges that "there are different approaches within the Democratic Party about how best to achieve the commitment of universal coverage" (Nicholas, Los Angeles Times, 8/10).
According to the platform, Democrats ar "united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have low-priced, comprehensive health care" (Woodward, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 8/10). The chopine also states, "Coverage should be made affordable for all Americans with train financial assistance through tax credits and other means," adding, "As affordable coverage is made available, individuals should purchase health indemnity and take steps to lead healthy lives." In addition, the platform calls for a tax credit to help oneself small businesses provide wellness insurance for employees (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/9).
Final approval of the platform will go on later this month at the Democratic National Convention in Denver (Los Angeles Times, 8/10). Party platforms "are typically given little attention subsequently they are adopted," simply the "party's decision to embrace guaranteed health guardianship is destined to suit a ahead yardstick by which [Illinois Sen. Barak] Obama's (D) presidency will be metrical if he wins in November," according to the AP/San Francisco Chronicle (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 8/10).
McCain No Longer Supports Cigarette Tax Increase
In other election news, the political campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) has decided not to accompaniment a bill he proposed in 1998 that would have increased the federal cigarette task, allowed FDA to modulate tobacco products, and needful the tobacco industry to finance anti-smoking programs and settle a lawsuit filed by states, Roll Call reports. The legislation, which died on the Senate floor, would have provided the union government with an extra $516 gazillion in tax revenue over 25 long time. According to Roll Call, McCain, "whose credentials as a assess cutter are suspect among many on the veracious, was the author and driver of the account," but "leading conservatives today are in general willing to forgive the Arizona senator for what they view as his transgression on the tobacco measure."
McCain senior economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin last week declined to input directly on whether the senator still supports the legislation simply said that he does not favor an increase in the federal coffin nail tax. The bill "was multidimensional," Holtz-Eakin said, adding, "We can't turn back the clock" and "take a bill from that era and put it in modern times" (Koffler, Roll Call, 8/11).
Editorial, Opinion Pieces
Summaries of an editorial and several opinion pieces related to to health care in the presidential election come out below.
Michael Kinsley, New York Times: "The purpose of a party platform is pandering ... to the faithful, under the assumption that only they will read it," and the Democratic Party chopine includes a large measure of "code" language on health care and former issues, Time columnist Kinsley writes in a Times opinion piece. According to Kinsley, the plank on health caution contains "mystery phrases that suggest a triumph for one side in some obscure policy battle." Kinsley writes that, amid a "frenzy of health maintenance promises -- basically, after the plan is fully implemented in 2050, no one will be permitted to get sick -- the Democrats advocate 'creating a generic pathway for biologic drugs.'" He adds, "Whether this is a rejoice for health and mutual sense or the miserable handiwork of a drug industry lobbyist (or both!), I have no idea." In addition, although "normally it is not possible to overutilisation the word 'American' or to overpraise this great country and its glorious people ... the Democrats crataegus oxycantha have set up a way in hopeful a health care system that is 'uniquely American,'" Kinsley writes, adding, "A uniquely American health maintenance system is what we've got" (Kinsley, New York Times, 8/10).
Paul Krugman, New York Times: The platform states that Democrats supporting access to health care for all U.S. residents, but whether Democrats canful "deliver on that commitment" remains undetermined, Times columnist Krugman writes. In "rule, it should be easy," Krugman writes, adding, "In practice, supporters of health care reform, myself included, will be hanging on by their fingernails until legislation is actually passed." According to Krugman, the "easy" division about "guaranteed health care for all" is that "we know that it's economically practicable," as "every wealthy country except the United States already has some form of guaranteed health precaution." He adds that the "politics of guaranteed fear are also easy, at least in one sense: if the Democrats do manage to establish a system of universal coverage, the country will love it." However, Krugman writes, "it's concentrated to get universal care established in the first-class honours degree place" because of "terzetto big hurdling." Democrats must win the election, "get the better of the public's fear of change" and maintain focus on health care amid the "many problems crying out for solutions," according to Krugman (Krugman, New York Times, 8/11).
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Both of the major presidential candidates will "move toward the political center" as the election nears, but, "on health care, the contrasts are stark and indicate the difference between the two candidates -- Obama is all about mandates, while McCain relies more on market forces," according to a Post-Gazette editorial. The editorial states, "How the two major parties view health care points to a difference in basic ism," as "Democratic plans distressed providing increased, preferably universal proposition, access to health precaution, while GOP proposals addressed costs, believing more Americans could aim health insurance if health care was more low-priced." The Obama health care proposal has a number of problems, the editorial states. "Employer mandates also would do little to address the cost of health care" and "likely would boost the prices charged by insurance companies and health care providers," according to the editorial. In improver, "government mandates to require health coverage is mission creep," the editorial states, adding, "That's when bureaucrats and politicians see their meddling isn't producing the desired results (usually because it can't), so they pile on more mandates requiring more than comprehensive reporting." The editorial states that Obama as well "demonstrates bad judgment with his ideas on pharmaceutical pricing." The editorial concludes, "The path health caution is provided in this country doesn't work well for everyone," but "up it for those on the lour end of the economical ladder doesn't have to come at the toll of qualification it worse for everyone else" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/10).
Timothy Noah, Washington Post: The U.S. health care system will alteration during the next quaternary years because the "current patchwork is coming apart at the seams," Noah, a aged writer at Slate, writes in a Post thought piece. According to Noah, the conclusion by some observers that the "federal government -- which already provides taxpayer-funded health insurance to the elderly, the destitute and increasingly to minors -- should extend health care coverage to everyone" is "bulletproof" (Noah, Washington Post, 8/10).
Reprinted with kind license rom hTTP://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the integral Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or polarity up for email delivery at hTTP://www.kaisernetwork.
