Campaign '04: Candidates back church call for health care reform

Published: 2004-06-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It's been more than a decade since the U.S. Catholic bishops declared in their 1993 document "A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform" that the U.S. health care system "serves too few and costs too much." With more than 43 million Americans now uninsured, the trend in the past 11 years has gone in the direction of serving fewer and costing more. Both President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the expected Republican and Democratic nominees for president, have outlined detailed plans for expanding access to affordable health care, protecting and strengthening Medicare, reforming medical liability law and reducing health care costs. Bush's plan focuses on expansion of a network of community health centers to serve low-income Americans; establishment of tax-free health savings accounts to pay out-of-pocket health costs; refundable tax credits to help workers buy health insurance; introduction of a prescription drug benefit for seniors through Medicare; formation of association health plans that would allow small businesses to band together for lowered insurance rates; and "common-sense reform to medical liability law" that would reduce "frivolous and time-consuming legal proceedings against doctors and health care providers." The centerpiece of Kerry's health care reform proposal is a federal guarantee to pay the full cost of more than 20 million children enrolled in Medicaid if states agree to expand coverage to children living at 300 percent of the federal poverty level and to the family members of children living at up to 200 percent of the poverty level. The plan would provide insurance to more than 18 million children and adults currently uninsured, according to the Kerry campaign.

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