The State of Healthcare 2008

This is the first installment of the state of healthcare in the United States, which is a great time because with the primaries heating up, it's great to look at what our candidates are using as rhetoric for solving the health care crisis. Let's start by looking at the candidate positions on healthcare:

 Hillary Clinton

• Hillary Clinton unveiled the third part of her plan to ensure that all
  Americans have affordable, quality health insurance. Building on her
  proposals to rein in costs and to insist on value and quality, her
  American Health Choices Plan will secure, simplify and ensure choice in
  health coverage for all Americans. This Plan covers every American -
  finally addressing the needs of the 47 million uninsured and the tens
  of millions of workers with coverage who fear they could be one pink
  slip away from losing their health coverage - with no overall increase
  in health spending or taxes. For those with health insurance, the plan
  builds on the current system to give businesses and their employees
  greater choice of health plans - including keeping the one they have -
  while lowering cost and improving quality.
• http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/summary.aspx

Barack Obama

The plan is too big - here's an excerpt and link:

• Obama's Plan to Cover Uninsured Americans:
  Obama will make available a new national health plan to all Americans,
  including the self-employed and small businesses, to buy affordable
  health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of
  Congress. The Obama plan will have the following features:
  1. Guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions.
  2. Comprehensive
     benefits. The benefit package will be similar to that offered through
     Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the plan members of
     Congress have. The plan will cover all essential medical services,
     including preventive, maternity and mental health care.
  3. Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
  4. Subsidies.
     Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP but
     still need financial assistance will receive an income-related federal
     subsidy to buy into the new public plan or purchase a private health
     care plan.
  5. Simplified paperwork and reined in health costs.
  6. Easy enrollment. The new public plan will be simple to enroll in and provide ready access to coverage.
  7. Portability
     and choice. Participants in the new public plan and the National Health
     Insurance Exchange (see below) will be able to move from job to job
     without changing or jeopardizing their health care coverage.
  8. Quality
     and efficiency. Participating insurance companies in the new public
     program will be required to report data to ensure that standards for
     quality, health information technology and administration are being met.

  http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

Mitt Romney

• Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all, government-run system, we
  must recognize the importance of the role of the states in leading
  reform and the need for innovation in dealing with rising health care
  costs and the problem of the uninsured. By expanding and deregulating
  the private health insurance market, we can decrease costs and ensure
  that more Americans have access to affordable, portable, quality,
  private health insurance.
• http://www.mittromney.com/Issues/healthcare

John McCain

• Bringing costs under control is the only way to stop the erosion of
  affordable health insurance, save Medicare and Medicaid, protect
  private health benefits for retirees, and allow our companies to
  effectively compete around the world.
• Families should be in charge of their health care dollars
  and have more control over their care. We can improve health and spend
  less, while promoting competition on the cost and quality of care,
  taking better care of our citizens with chronic illness, and promoting
  prevention that will keep millions of others from ever developing
  deadly and debilitating disease.
• While we reform the system and maintain quality, we can and
  must provide access to health care for all our citizens - whether
  temporarily or chronically uninsured, whether living in rural areas
  with limited services, or whether residing in inner cities where access
  to physicians is often limited.
• America's veterans have fought for our freedom. We should
  give them freedom to choose to carry their VA dollars to a provider
  that gives them the timely care at high quality and in the best
  location.
• Controlling health care costs will take fundamental change
  - nothing short of a complete reform of the culture of our health
  system and the way we pay for it will suffice.
  Reforms to federal policy and programs should focus on enhancing
  quality while controlling costs:
• Promote competition throughout the health care system - between providers and among alternative treatments.
• http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ba2f1c-c03f-4ac2-8cd5-5cf2e...

 Mike Huckabee

• The health care system in this country is irrevocably
  broken, in part because it is only a "health care" system, not a
  "health" system.
• We don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict.
• We do need to get serious about preventive health care.
• I advocate policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs.
• I value the states' role as laboratories for new market-based approaches.
• When I'm President, Americans will have more control of their health care options, not less.
• As
  President, I will work with the private sector, Congress, health care
  providers, and other concerned parties to lead a complete overhaul of
  our health care system.
• Our health care system is making
  our businesses non-competitive in the global economy. It is time to
  recognize that jobs don't need health care, people do, and move from
  employer-based to consumer-based health care.

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=8