Presidential Candidates Have Not Addressed Health Care Cost Issue, Los Angeles Times States
The issue of increased health care costs has become the "elephant on the 2004 campaign trail, the threat" that neither President Bush nor presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) has "confronted squarely," a Los Angeles Times editorial states. Although both Bush and Kerry have proposed plans to expand health coverage, neither "has gotten to the core problem of reducing costs," the editorial states. According to the editorial, the National Coalition on Health Care, an advocacy group, this summer will propose "a basic package of essential benefits" that health insurers would have to provide to members in specific regions, as part of an effort to reduce health care costs through coverage restrictions and reductions in "marketing and middleman costs." The editorial states that the plan is "not a solution, but it is a start." The editorial concludes that the "Clinton-era's 'Hillarycare' debacle that frightened politicians away from the issue is over," but the "presidential campaigns just haven't figured it out" (Los Angeles Times, 6/3).
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