CAMPAIGN 2000: Bradley on Means-Testing, Universal Cov.

      At a speech before the New York Academy of Medicine Tuesday evening, presidential hopeful Bill Bradley "said he would make universal coverage a top priority in a Bradley presidency," the Washington Post reports. He said, "We should move from universal care to universal coverage. We should commit to the goal that every American has health care insurance and we will not back away from that, no matter how challenging it will be to find the best means to get there, even if it is phased in" (Balz, 4/29). The Washington Times reports that Bradley "detailed four broad proposals that he said would 'help people regain confidence and a reasonable sense of control over their health care." In addition to universal coverage, which he estimated would cost $55 billion, Bradley "proposed working with health plans to restore decision making to physicians and other practitioners and their patients." He also advocated means-testing Medicare (4/29). He said, "We should focus on the financial health of the Medicare program by exploring what it would mean to have a sliding-scale contribution ... that supplements the public funding." The Washington Post notes that this stance could open Bradley up "to criticism from some Democratic constituencies" (4/29).