Democratic Presidential Candidate Carol Mosley Braun Previews ‘Radical’ Health Care Proposal
Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) has said she is in the early stages of creating a "radical" and "ambitious" health care plan that will cover the uninsured and provide prescription drug coverage for seniors, The Hill reports. In an interview with The Hill, Moseley Braun said she intends to "decouple" health insurance from employment because many people are unemployed, self-employed or work for small businesses where they cannot obtain health insurance. Moseley Braun said she would offer a universal, comprehensive health plan that would be modeled after the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program. "Insurance companies should only be (payers) and should not be in health care policymaking," she said. Moseley Braun also said that she would combine different payment systems, including Medicare and Medicaid, to reduce bureaucracy. To pay for the new health care system, Moseley Braun said she would raise the income tax and eliminate "employment tax[es]" such as the Medicare payroll tax; however, she added, "I haven't run the numbers yet." Every U.S. resident "gets health care now, but the way we pay for it is out of whack," she said. Moseley Braun said she intends to unveil her complete plan in early fall (Cusack, The Hill, 6/3).
The June 9 issue of the New Republic examines the health care plans of Democratic presidential candidates Rep. Richard Gephardt (Mo.), former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry (Mass.). According to the New Republic, none of the candidates' plans are as ambitious as former President Bill Clinton's attempt to reform health care, and each plan "is a near perfect distillation of its author's character and experience" (Cohn, New Republic, 6/9). WAMU's "The Diane Rehm Show," a nationally syndicated NPR program, today in the first hour of the program will include a discussion of health care's emerging as a "top issue" early in the presidential campaign, the candidates' proposals for health care reform and the issue's possible development as the campaigns unfold. Guests on the program will include Dean; Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio); Amy Goldstein, national domestic policy reporter for the Washington Post; Jean Lambrew, associate professor of health policy at George Washington University; and Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute (Rehm, "The Diane Rehm Show," WAMU, 6/4). The full segment will be available after the broadcast online.
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.