"The American health care system is broken," said Edwards. "Even families with insurance are often unprotected from catastrophic events, as insurers fight legitimate claims, impose coverage caps, and look for technicalities to cancel policies. Half of families entering bankruptcy today are driven by high medical costs.
"I have spent my entire life battling special interest groups to protect the rights of regular Americans. In courtrooms, I stood with families who needed a voice against armies of insurance company lawyers. In the Senate, I championed the Patients' Bill of Rights to fight managed care and insurance company abuses. I've seen first-hand how far too often health insurance companies will put profit and executive bonuses above the medical needs of their customers.
He went on to detail some of his proposals to fix the American healthcare system and make it work for American families again:
Under the Edwards' plan, insurance companies will be required to sell insurance to everyone, regardless of their preexisting conditions, and prevented from denying coverage after a condition develops. Edwards will put a stop to the practice of charging more to individuals with certain occupations or with pre-existing conditions, and will set national accounting standards requiring insurers to spend at least 85 percent of their premiums on patient care. Edwards will empower consumers by forcing insurance companies to be more honest and transparent about what they will ultimately cover and making sure all insurers guarantee comprehensive benefits. Edwards also called for an updated bill of rights for patients and providers.
To strengthen oversight and maintaining insurer accountability, Edwards will create Health Care Markets and offer advocates to help patients negotiate with insurance companies. And to increase competition and stop insurance company monopolies, Edwards will block mergers that could hurt consumers, doctors and hospitals. Also, his new public insurance plan will increase competitive pressures on private insurers to hold down their costs and deliver better coverage.
Please see all of this excellent plan here:
http://www.johnedwards.com/...
As for Romney's plan to further de-regulate the very people who have caused the problem to begin with, Edwards had this to say:
"Last week, Governor Romney proposed even further deregulation of the health insurance industry – a plan that could lead to even more insured Americans without the care they need. This is clearly the wrong approach. We need tough new insurance laws to prevent abuses and ensure that Americans are no longer on their own against insurance companies."
Of course Edwards is right about this, I hope we can at least all agree on that. Romney is showing his true colors as a elitist we all must fear gaining the White House. His only fix for the problem is more de-regulation, and undoubtedly more American taxpayer funded Corporate Welfare to Big Insurance, who aren't hurting near as much as their consumers. John Edwards and Mitt Romney successfully define the differences in Republicans and Democrats when it comes to solving a crises. Edwards believes in real reforms to help the American worker as a Democrat, while Republican Romney uses every situation to try and take more money from the average American and throw it away to greedy corporations whose bottom line is already soaring. It seems Romney thinks that corporate America can better spend our hard earned money that we can.
I would like to commment on one more thing before opening up for discussion. I have heard a lot on the blogs from the supporters of other candidates about how John Edwards did nothing in the Senate, and is a Johnny Come-Lately to the things he speaks to. To those people I would like to offer a quote from June of 2001 from John Edwards:
We want to treat HMOs the same way everybody else is treated in this country. Right now, they are about the only business in America to have special status. They want to keep their privileged status. We should be able to hold HMOs accountable, the same way we treat doctors and nurses and others, in order to help patients get the health care they deserve. Strong accountability will deter HMO abuse and make sure that all patients get high quality care.
Please see the whole Time magazine article from June, 2001 here, in which John Edwards stood with Sen. Kennedy and fought for a patients bill of rights:
http://www.time.com/...
John Edwards has fought for normal Americans against Big Insurance his whole life. He did it as a trial attorney, and won many cases when Corporate America sought to shortchange normal Americans. He fought for working Americans to have a patient's bill of rights to protect them against the big HMOs. He has a proven track record of fighting these special interests, and more importantly BEATING THEM. He is our best chance to take our country back from Corporate America and make our country the land of opportunity once again.
I hope you will join me in supporting John Edwards as our nominee.
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