Democratic Presidential Candidates Spar on Health Care Issues in Debate
In a debate last night in Albuquerque, N.M., the Democratic candidates for president "split, sometimes bitterly," over several issues, including health care, the Washington Post reports. The candidates disagreed about whose plan would best increase access to health insurance and whose plan was the most "fiscally responsible," according to the Post (Balz/VandeHei, Washington Post, 9/5). While the candidates largely agreed on issues such as tax policy and the Bush administration's handling of the postwar situation in Iraq, differences among them "emerged a bit more noticeably on the health care issue," the Los Angeles Times reports. Former Sen. Carole Moseley Braun (Ill.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) called for a single-payer health care system (Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 9/5). The other candidates advocated expanding the existing employer-based system (Washington Post, 9/5). A RealAudio file of the health care segment of the debate is available online.
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