Today, Bill Cahir’s campaign launched yet another policy page called Every American’s Health Care Right. You can check it out here:
http://www.billcahir.com/content/page/id/216
Bill takes a lot of lessons from his days working for Senator Harris Wofford and their was no more important issue than health care reform in which he learned about the mess in Washington. The big special interests defeated health care back then and Bill saw how they prevented all Americans from being covered.
The campaign is taking the approach of putting out real, substanitive policy statements because bullet points, blurbs and talking points just aren’t enough. The voters in the PA 5th deserve better and Bill is more than happy to drive the debate with bold ideas.
We certainly encourage everyone to read not only Bill’s policy, but that of the other candidates in this race, both Democrat and Republican. Compare them all and see who is giving you more substance about how they are going to lead on these issues.
Some parts of Cahir's health care plan sound familiar...
McCracken’s website posted over a month ago:
Element 1: Affordable Coverage for those who need it.
The federal government would create an insurance pool fund to provide coverage to those currently on Medicare / Medicaid. Additionally, individuals and small businesses could opt in to buy either full or supplemental coverage through the national pool fund. It would not be mandatory for everyone to join, but the national pool fund would be an available and affordable option for everyone.
Today, the Cahir campaign releases their plan which states:
Create a voluntary purchasing pool that would let farmers, self-employed people and business owners with 50 or fewer employees join a broad risk pool and help them buy affordable private health care coverage;
Big stretch
If you are suggesting that Cahir copied one of McCrackens points, its a huge stretch.
But I think most readers will find that McCracken takes the Rick Santorum approach to medical malpractice:
“Strict limits should be placed on malpractice claims and only the most deliberate mistakes should be eligible for multi-million dollar legal settlements.”
http://www.mccrackenforcongress.com/issue-healthca…
So Mr. McCracken is in line with the right wing in believing that if someone is harmed during an operation that they don’t matter and should not be able to seek recovery of their value of their loss. Hey, at least McCracken has it out there for everyone to read. Gotta give him credit for that.
Why did health care refrom fail in the 90's?
Easy answer – because there was nothing in it for the doctors and the medical community. Once the medical community realized there was nothing in it for them, they sided with the insurance companies, scared the people and it failed.
McCracken is at least offering something that could get bipartisan support and offering something to get the doctors and the medical community on board with the plan.
The malpractice insurance issue is a huge problem here in central Pennsylvania. Many doctors chose to leave the area because of the overwhelming cost for malpractice insurance. Rural communities have problems attracting doctors and in particular have problems attracting specialists like OB-GYN’s.
This is a problem in many of the small rural communities in the fifth district. I guess if you’ve lived outside the district for many years you would not know this is a problem for the communities you seek to represent.
The true Republican
Spoken like a true Republican. The special interests in Washington beat down the health care bill and you defend them. I would like to see Mr. McCracken tell one of the workers in the forestry or coal mines in the 5th that they aren’t worth seeking full recourse. That should get him a lot of votes.
Calling McCracken's policy positions Santorum-esque is laughable
Talking points are just talking points unless you have the experience to back it up. It doesn’t matter if they are Democratic or Republican, relating McCracken to “Man on Dog” Santorum is unfortunate at best.
Represent?
Sorry. I am not running for congress so I am not sure who you are referring to in your last sentence. Thanks, though.
Affordable Coverage
Healthcare will only be affordable when the providers and insurers make it affordable. Don’t hold your breath.
Major differences
I read all three plans for the Democrats and both Vilello and McCracken are a bit light in their proposals. Maybe they will have more details later.
Looks like the Cahir policy is a lot more comprehensive in his approach. Glad to see someone is putting some effort into this race.
To the anonymous'
It is good to see that there is so much debate back and forth. What I would like to see is that instead of everyone hiding behind an anonymous tag, come out of the shadows and put your name on these comments.
My name is Daren and I am with Bill Cahir’s campaign. We posted our health care policy earlier this morning not only on our site:
http://www.billcahir.com/content/page/id/216
But here at Keystone and DailyKos as well. Please keep up the debate but lets not be afraid to take credit for your comments. We have nothing to hide and I promise you that I will always include my name when I post a comment so that you know its me.
Thanks,
Daren
One better
I just went on to create and account so in case I ever forget to sign my name or mention that I am from the Cahir campaign (which I will no doubt do at some point) I will always have the account tag name.
And an FYI to all those here at KP, the Cahir for Congress campaign will be announcing the endorsement from an influential national organization very soon. Stay tuned.
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