Giuliani to the uninsured: Good luck
Rudy Giuliani at least gets credit for not trying to paper over the obvious.
As previewed in an earlier item here, he unveiled today his plan for grappling with the nation's health care problems. The proposal is centered around creating a tax deduction of up to $15,000 for families to buy their own health insurance from private companies, rather than relying on benefits provided by employers. The idea is very similar to one President Bush has pushed --- to absolutely no avail in Congress.
As for the uninsured, Giuliani is taking a laissez-faire approach to getting them coverage. Newday's Craig Gordon was with the former New York mayor on the campaign trail, and he writes that Giuliani agreed the uninsured "would find relief in his plan only after the free-market forces pushed the cost of private health insurance down far enough for the uninsured to afford it --- a process he acknowledged could take years."
Giuliani also echoed his past criticism of the various health care ideas promoted by Democratic presidential candidates, dismissing them as "socialized" medicine (a favorite GOP attack line that some party stalwarts used in the 1960s to oppose Medicare).
Giuliani is the first of the major Republican presidential contenders to offer anything close to a detailed blueprint on the health care issue. Although the others may present plans that envision a more direct federal role in efforts to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, it is highly doubtful any will be as ambitious as proposals pushed by the Democrats. By the time the general election campaign commences, the question of how aggressively the government should address this subject almost assuredly will loom as a major divide between the two parties.
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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"Socialized Medicine?" What about the USPS? Libraries? Medicare? Social Security? Give us "socialized medicine" any day.
Posted by: Joe | July 31, 2007 at 07:17 PM