Teresa Heinz Kerry Discusses John Kerry’s Health Care Plan in Iowa
Teresa Heinz Kerry, Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) wife, on Tuesday discussed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's health care plan at the Primary Health Care Outreach Clinic in Des Moines, Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports (Roos, Des Moines Register, 6/30). Under Kerry's plan, which aims to expand health care coverage to about 26.7 million people, the federal government would offer tax credits to people who purchase private health insurance and would assume a share of the costs of treating catastrophic illnesses from private businesses. In addition, Kerry's plan would expand existing government health programs, including Medicaid, and permit individuals and small businesses to buy into the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Kerry has said that he would finance his health care proposal, which would cost an estimated $653 billion over 10 years, by repealing tax cuts for families whose annual incomes exceed $200,000. Kerry has said he would support the reimportation of lower-cost, U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canada and would allow Medicare to negotiate bulk-purchasing contracts with pharmaceutical companies (California Healthline, 6/28). Heinz Kerry said that if the federal government assumes a large share of the cost of catastrophic care, "no one has to go to the poorhouse" (Roos, Des Moines Register, 6/30). Heinz Kerry also discussed preventive care and pharmaceutical costs during the hour-long appearance (Crawford, Des Moines Register, 6/30).
CBS' "Evening News" on Tuesday as part of a series this month titled "What Does it Mean to You?" on the presidential candidates' stances on major issues, reported on health care reform proposals by President Bush and Kerry. The segment includes comments from Bush, Kerry and Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Kaledin, "Evening News," CBS, 6/29). The complete transcript is available online. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
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