BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Democratic Party Edwards Plan for Universal Health Care

I read your article on this topic. Massachusetts is in the process of implementing a Universal Health Care program. While I believe, the US needs to revamp its health care systems, if Edward's plan is similar to MA plan except magnified for the nation, the burden will fall on individuals and employers. Small businesses cannot afford to take on this burden. Some PT employees will have their entire pays absorbed by the cost of this health care. MA's implimentation is not without its controversies.

A friend of mine who lives quite frugally on her investment income and does not work. She is without health care because she is not yet old enough to Medicare. Her investment income on a Gross level is above the limit for the lower levels of coverage offered by MA's plan. The cost of this enforced medical coverage will be $6,000 a year severly eating into her meager earnings. She is quite healthy and does proactively practice preventative health care. She does NOT spend $6,000 a year in medical care. Now she will be forced to subsidize others in the healh plan pool. I'm having a problem with that.

A Universal Health Care system can not be imposed all at once. That would be too costly and too burdensome. It needs to be phased in gradually in stages.

We need a different plan to achieve Universal Health Care. This plan would to take three steps to contain the cost of health care: modernize the system, simplify the system and reduce errors.

A transition to secure electronic records would provide people, their doctors and nurses with vital medical information in real time. This would significantly help lower health care costs by lowering the clerical and administrative costs.

We also need to allow the states the flexibility to purse innovative alternatives to expanding health care coverage for everyone. If given the opportunity and fiscal means to do so the states could create a strong variety of solutions to the problem. We should then use data from these states to evaluate what works best in providing affordable access to health care for all. Innovation rather than legislation will create the best solutions to health care.

This is a better path toward increasing and improving health care coverage in America.

This is the health care plan offered by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

Watch Edwards talk about his planBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

I watched the video. I heard a lot of the reasons that universal health care is needed, but very little on the details of how it can be achieved. I heard what John Edwards believes his plan will do, but not how it will do it. This video looked more like a "Rah! Rah!" policital cheer for John Edwards than a substanitive solution to the problems of health care in American. I was not impressed.

yeah, implementing a plan is a lot harder than presenting it. At least, Edwards has been talking about the issue. the pother candidates seem to be avoiding it at this stage of their campaign.

Now that John Edwards wife has a serious recurrance of cancer, after having breast cancer in 2004, do you think he will be able to stay in the campaign for long? I know both he and his wife say he will continue his Presidential campaign, but it is 10 months to the first primary. Her cancer sounds more serious and a lot can happen before then. Hopefully she can beat cancer again, but the report is that is has spread to her bones and possibly her lung as well. I wish them well, but considering her health I don't know how John Edwards can give his campaign his full attention.

He probably cannot, but to me it appears as though his continuation of the campaign is preferable to cowering in a corner fearing the worst. In a way this will keep him and her too busy to worry about the possible outcomes of this illness.