Republican Presidential Candidate McCain Clarifies Part Of Health Care Proposal At Forum
02 11 07 - 09:02
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) at a Washington, D.C., forum organized by Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals clarified that his health care proposal would allow employers to deduct health insurance costs from their taxable income, the AP/Boston Globe reports. According to McCain, when he announced the proposal last month, his aides erroneously said that he would eliminate the tax deduction to help pay for the plan.
McCain said, "The employer tax deduction stays in place so the employer still has an incentive to provide health insurance to the employee, but the employee now loses the health tax incentive and it is replaced by the refundable tax credit." McCain also apologized "if there was any confusion" about the proposal (Sidoti, AP/Boston Globe, 10/31).
In addition, McCain said that the proposal would not require U.S. residents to obtain health insurance because many residents do not have coverage by choice. He said, "I'm not going to force Americans to buy insurance," adding, "But if we bring down the cost, I'm convinced more and more will take advantage of it."
In response to questions about his votes against legislation to expand SCHIP and establish the Medicare prescription drug benefit, McCain said that he opposes public health care programs not limited to low-income residents (Bartolf, CQ HealthBeat, 10/31). He also criticized the health care proposals of Republican presidential candidates former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for their failure to address the most important issues with the health care system (AP/Boston Globe, 10/31).
Video of the forum is available online.
The forums organizers have invited all of the presidential candidates to participate, and next on the schedule is Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) for Monday, Nov. 19 at 1:30pm ET. The Kaiser Family Foundation hosts the forums in its Barbara Jordan Conference Center in Washington, D.C. Kaiser is webcasting the forums live through kaisernetwork.org, its health policy news and information service. Susan Dentzer of PBS' "The News Hour With Jim Lehrer" will moderate the forums, and additional panelists will include journalists from NPR, Wall Street Journal and ABC News. Live and archived webcasts, as well as additional information about the forums, are available on a dedicated Web site, http://presidentialforums.health08.org. The forums are being funded by The California Endowment and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/26).
NFIB Joins Divided We Fail Campaign
The National Federation of Independent Business on Thursday will announce plans to join Divided We Fail -- a campaign launched by AARP, the Service Employees International Union and the Business Roundtable that seeks to focus the 2008 presidential election on health care and financial security issues, the Los Angeles Times reports. According to the Times, the "strange bedfellows are trying to forestall the kind of political polarization that doomed" health care reform in the 1990s, but the "new alliance does not mean that its members are united behind one specific approach."
AARP CEO Bill Novelli said, "There are lots of policy ideas. What is missing right now is political will." He added, "If we get to the point of disagreement, we'll arm-wrestle later."
NFIB President Todd Stottlemyer said, "Access to affordable health insurance is the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 issue for small business across the United States," adding, "For us, not to be at the table in any serious conversations makes no sense. There really can't be a national debate about health care unless small business has a seat at the table." In addition, Stottlemyer said, "We have an obligation to at least actively listen to one another and engage with one another, instead of talking past one another or at one another" (Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, 11/1).
Additional Developments
Summaries of several additional developments in the presidential campaign related to health care appear below.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.): Clinton on Wednesday received the endorsement of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 1.4 million nurses and other public service workers nationwide, the AP/Boston Herald reports. AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, who has long made health care reform a priority for the union, said that Clinton "will help rebuild America's middle class and make sure everyone shares in our country's prosperity" (AP/Boston Herald, 10/31).
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.): Edwards on Thursday began to air a 60-second television advertisement in Iowa that encourages Democratic voters to "have a little guts" and "stand up for working men and women," the AP/Miami Herald reports. In the ad, which features images of workers and children, Edwards says, "If you're looking for heroes, don't look to me. Don't look to Elizabeth. We have support. We have health care. We have the American people behind us," adding, "Look to them. They are the ones who we speak for. They are the ones that we stand up for" (Lorentzen, AP/Miami Herald, 11/1).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.