Tommy Thompson Pushes Health Care in Presidential Race
Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson on Thursday said he wants to "make health care the dominant issue" of the 2008 presidential election, the Des Moines Register reports.
Thompson -- a former HHS secretary and governor of Wisconsin -- during a speech at Des Moines University, said, "We've gone through two presidential debates, and not one question was asked about health care or education."
Thompson discussed a range of health care topics, from food portion control to the use of e-prescriptions. He also said that Medicare will become insolvent by 2014 without reform, but "nobody wants to talk about it."
Thompson said that he would adjust the inflation rate on Medicare and form a bipartisan "blue-ribbon study group" to research possible program changes. However, he told the Register that he did not "want to dwell on specifics" of a possible Medicare overhaul because he does not "want to scare anyone."
In addition, Thompson said that he would form a national insurance pool to expand coverage to the uninsured. Thompson said that he does not support a single-payer health care system, which is supported by some Democratic presidential candidates (Jordan, Des Moines Register, 5/18).