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Edwards Comes Out Swinging For Universal Health Care

I just received an e-mail blast from John Edwards that is a good example of a candidate taking a strong stance on an issue of great importance to many Americans, and especially young Americans: Health Care. My favorite part is that he wasn't afraid to use the term that many beltway folks seem deathly afraid of: Universal Health Care. From the e-mail:

As you well know, the American health care system is broken for far too many of our families. Today, 47 million people are uninsured, while uncertainty grows and costs spiral for nearly everyone else. To fix this crisis, we don't need an incremental shift, we need a fundamental change.

So today, I'm proud to announce my plan to guarantee top quality health care to every man, woman and child in this great country.

Now, I do think that the plan sounds a little wishy washy, but hell, this is a complicated issue. But as someone who has been dealing with the fear and general unease of living without health care, I can say that this will be the #2 issue that I vote upon in the upcoming election (the environment, that system upon which all other systems depend, will always be numero uno), and the fact that Edwards has come out in front of this issue greatly increases the chances that I'll vote for him (unless Gore jumps in or someone comes out with a less wishy-washy plan), and I assume that many other active politicos might feel the same way.

The full e-mail, including the usual pitch for volunteers, is after the jump...

Universal health care: Let's make it happen

Dear Alex,

As you well know, the American health care system is broken for far too many of our families. Today, 47 million people are uninsured, while uncertainty grows and costs spiral for nearly everyone else. To fix this crisis, we don't need an incremental shift, we need a fundamental change.

So today, I'm proud to announce my plan to guarantee top quality health care to every man, woman and child in this great country. And I need your help.

Change this big simply cannot come from the top down. To make this dream a reality, we must build a groundswell of support to demand change from the bottom up. We can't start in two years or six months. If we're going to transform America, we've got to start today.

If you're ready to begin, here's what you can do right now:

1. Click here for more details of the Edwards Plan (opens in PDF).

We have to stop using words like 'access to health care' when we know with certainty those words mean something less than universal care. Who are you willing to leave behind without the care he needs? Which family? Which child? We need a truly universal solution, and we need it now.

Universal health care is not a new idea. Why can we can achieve it now when all previous efforts have fallen short?

For one, the system is in greater crisis now than ever before - more uninsured people, more workers changing jobs or working on their own, and more out of control costs. People are ready for change. But the real reason I know we can make this happen? You.

This campaign is about transformational change, the kind you can only achieve working together with millions of committed citizens who share a vision for a better life - and that's exactly what we've got.

If you add your name to our statement of support and get three friends or family members to do the same in the next seven days, you can help get this campaign started right - and there's no limit to what we can achieve.

http://johnedwards.com/r/5733/808171

Sincerely,

John Edwards

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February 5th, 2007 3:41pm
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Klein on Edwards' Plan

Submitted by Michael Connery on Mon, 2007-02-05 16:28.

Ezra Klein, my favorite Millennial Wonk (and a health wonk at that), has great things to say about Edwards’ health care plan:

Where the Edwards’ plan takes a big step forward is in mandating, along with the private options, that HMs offer “at least one plan [that] would be a public program based upon Medicare.” And the intent is explicit: “Health Markets will offer a choice between private insurers and a public insurance plan modeled after Medicare, but separate and apart from it. Families and individuals will choose the plan that works best for them. This American solution will reward the sector that offers the best care at the best price. Over time, the system may evolve toward a single-payer approach if individuals and businesses prefer the public plan.” In other words, the public sector will finally be allowed to compete with the private sector, and consumers will be able to decide which style they prefer. For Democrats, this is a significant step forward.

It’s high praise, and Klein is where I go when I want to know what’s really going on in the (incredibly complex) world of health care policy. It’s a great move for Edwards to come out strong like this early. As Klein says, it will force the other candidates to propose their own, equally specific and comprehensive plans. It’s setting the terms of (and moving) the debate in a decidedly progressive direction.

Strong to very strong.

Eve Gittleson

Submitted by Fred (not verified) on Tue, 2007-02-06 07:21.

NYCeve is a DKos blogger and healthcare wonk, hers was the review I was actually wondering about… she liked it. Though the comment thread was taken over by concern trolls, I’m okay with the plan. My policy wonk GF said, though I’m sure you’d like to, you can’t legislate a trillion dollar industry out of existence with the stroke of a pen. But you can make it impossible for them to compete with an efficient government system that quickly fills up with enrollees when the default choice is the medicare one. Her estimate is that by the second term, you’ll have single payer for just about everyone in the nation.

If this is the pitch that goes with the policy, it's a good sell

Submitted by Fred Gooltz on Tue, 2007-02-06 08:40.


Yeah

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-02-06 17:11.

That spirit is notably absent from the email. Notice Candidate Edwards mentions “insurance” only to attack the industry. Whoever wrote that email biffed it.

And I still think it should be opt-out, not opt-in.

Edwards

Submitted by Craig Berger on Tue, 2007-02-06 16:45.

This is why I like Edwards so much. Sure, he voted for the Iraq war. Yeah, he doesn’t have much experience in government.

But he IS willing to take a stand on issues that are important to me. He is right on when he talks about political courage and its importance in the evaluation of candidates. He demonstrates the fact that he cares what’s going on in the country and not his own political career by coming out and defining the debate like he just did. Notice he’s not forming any “exploratory committee.” He’s in for sure.

There’s no parsing words with Edwards. He’s turning into a progressive version of the Straight Talk Express of 2000, but with more passion, more charisma, and hopefully, a better result.

Poorly presented

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-02-06 16:53.

I griped about this yesterday when I got it. I still have to wade through the details, but from a message standpoint the delivery of this plan was an unmitigated failure.

The bullet points in Edwards’ summary (in the email) were as follows:

  • Require businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance.
  • Make insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs.
  • Create regional Health Markets purchasing pools to ensure that every single American has a way to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance.
  • Once these steps have been taken, require all American residents to get insurance.

The emphasis on insurance rather than health care is a horrible mistake in terms of framing. I’m aware that it is difficult (and likely inadvisable) to legislate the Health Insurance industry out of existence (although it’s also the right thing to do), but this is a campaign prop, not a policy, and there’s no reason to kowtow to insurance interests now. Uh, other than to get money from them. (gulp).

The way the pitch reads, I see complexity; I see tax credits; I see needing an accountant; I see the need for people to wade through paperwork to get onto a plan; I see complex and irregular definitions of what’s covered and what’s not. It may or may not be a good plan, but it sure as hell isn’t a good pitch. It’s jargony, and it gives the wrong signals.

An effective health care plan will be framed around providing FUCKING HEALTH CARE, which has fuck-all to do with insurance. At the policy level you need to deal with the existing marketplace, yeah, but shut the fuck up about it until then.

Medicare and Medicade are not insurance. Expanding them to cover all americans is not giving everyone insurance. Don’t fucking call it that, you fucking morons. People HATE insurance companies, and for good reason. They’re scumbag pyramid schemes that combine the worst aspects of Soviet-Style bureaucracy and American-Style corporate greed.

If this is how Johnny Sunshine is going to introduce signature pieces of his campaign, he might as well go home now and spare a lot of people a lot of effort.

Atrios

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-02-06 16:57.

See also this Atrios post, which illustrates a much better way to frame things.

We’re creating an new entitlement. It’s an entitlement a vast majority of the public supports. It’s ok to be up-front about this. In fact, it’s the only way to get’r’dun.

Also worth noting

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-02-06 17:02.

Here’s the full email I got. Different from Alex’s…

Dear Friend,

As you well know, the American health care system is broken for far too many of our families. Today, 47 million people are uninsured, while uncertainty grows and costs spiral for nearly everyone else. To fix this crisis, we don’t need an incremental shift, we need a fundamental change.

So today, I’m proud to announce my plan to guarantee top quality health care to every man, woman and child in this great country. And I need your help.

Change this big simply cannot come from the top down. To make this dream a reality, we must build a groundswell of support to demand change from the bottom up. We can’t start in two years or six months. If we’re going to transform America, we’ve got to start today.

If you’re ready to begin, here’s what you can do right now:

  1. Sign up to support universal health care. Achieving universal coverage will require hundreds of thousands of Americans willing to take action.
  2. In the next week, talk to at least three of your friends or family members about this plan, and ask them to sign up as well. If we each talk to just three people in the next seven days, we’ll reach millions of people and start a chain reaction that will raise awareness and catalyze action across the nation - a good start.

Here’s how my plan will save money, improve flexibility, and guarantee health care for every man, woman and child in America:

  • Require businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance.
  • Make insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs.
  • Create regional Health Markets purchasing pools to ensure that every single American has a way to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance.
  • Once these steps have been taken, require all American residents to get insurance.

Click here for more details of the Edwards Plan (opens in PDF).

We have to stop using words like ‘access to health care’ when we know with certainty those words mean something less than universal care. Who are you willing to leave behind without the care he needs? Which family? Which child? We need a truly universal solution, and we need it now.

Universal health care is not a new idea. Why can we can achieve it now when all previous efforts have fallen short?

For one, the system is in greater crisis now than ever before - more uninsured people, more workers changing jobs or working on their own, and more out of control costs. People are ready for change. But the real reason I know we can make this happen? You.

This campaign is about transformational change, the kind you can only achieve working together with millions of committed citizens who share a vision for a better life - and that’s exactly what we’ve got.

If you add your name to our statement of support and get three friends or family members to do the same in the next seven days, you can help get this campaign started right - and there’s no limit to what we can achieve.

http://johnedwards.com/r/5733/847940 Sincerely,

John Edwards

Boo! Hiss! Josh Piles On Edwards....

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-02-06 17:44.

I actually read the plan now. I’m even more disappointed.

First of all, this isn’t a plan. It’s a lengthy/wonky marketing piece. It contains no specifics or figures or the like, just more vague statements. Not entirely unexpected, but it would have been nice to have something with more heft to it.

Second of all, the back-breaking element of this is right there in no uncertain terms:

Once insurance is affordable, everyone will be expected to take responsibility for themselves and their families by obtaining health coverage.

People should have health care automatically. That’s what “universal” means. There are times and places where emphasizing personal responsibility makes sense, but this is not one of them, and putting this kind of stuff in the policy creates all sorts of space for bad actors — employers, insurance corporations, pharmaceutical corporations, etc — to screw over citizens.

Mandating that people opt-in just makes no sense (see my link to atrios on this). That’s not Universal. It undercuts Edwards own great rhetorical point about “access.” Universal means you don’t need to worry about coverage. It’s universal. You’ve got it. You break your leg, you get in the ambulance, you go get fixed up. There’s no reason not to do it this way. Maybe if you’ve got diabeties or a hereditary condition or a real penchant for the chiropractor you would want to tinker with your plan, but I fail to see how forcing people to fend for themselves in a confusing and complex insurance marketplace has to do with providing universal health care.

My take: seriously watered-down.