Jane on Health Care

Continuing the series, here is Jane of Health Care via her campaign website:

I believe that a nation as great as ours has a moral obligation to care for the needs of our sick and our vulnerable, and yet we continue to fall dramatically short of that commitment. The Medicare bill passed by the last Congress promised much and delivered little but uncertainty, pushing seniors into private plans with no promise of what happens next – and at a time in their lives when they should be enjoying the security they have earned and been promised.

When elected to Congress, I will work to:

* Ensure access to affordable health care for all Americans
* Cover every child
* Make seniors more secure by making Medicare more secure
* Work for a real solution to the high cost of prescription drugs, in a way that benefits people, not pharmaceutical giants

Her preamble is filled with the usual Hillary-lite rhetoric. Her take on the Medicare bill that Congress passed and the President signed in to law is a little confusing: how can it deliver "little but uncertainty" when the bulk of the law's provisions aren't active until January 2006? The plan doesn't "push" anybody into private plans, rather it provides an alternative to those who would rather manage their own care.

Let's break down her goals:

Ensure access to affordable health care for all Americans

What sort of legislation would she propose/support? This blurb is a bit light on the details, but it sounds good...if you don't ask too many questions, that is.

Health care will never be "affordable" until tort reform is enacted and insurance companies and the care providers can get back to business without fear of frivilous lawsuits.

I've seen an interview with Jane where she says she's for the tax cuts (which is good), but one is left asking how she would pay for this benefit without raising taxes.

Jane may have a "secret plan" but if she does, she should run on it instead of leaving us in the dark.

Cover every child

This is traight out of the HILLARY! playbook. The same questions apply. It is one thing to say it, but it is entirely a different matter to find ways to make it happen. Again, the "secret plan" approach really isn't going to get it done.

Make seniors more secure by making Medicare more secure

We'd all like to do that, but I suspect Jane's "secret plan" will involve a "lock box" which doesn't exist.

Work for a real solution to the high cost of prescription drugs, in a way that benefits people, not pharmaceutical giants

I suspect this is another Medicare bill scare tactic. If she's going to "work for" it that means she doesn't have the solution; to which I say, why bother making an issue of it.

In the end, somebody needs to ask Jane just what it is she is proposing for Health Care because it isn't real clear at this point. Her positions leave a lot questions unanswered and all we're left with is flowery rhetoric empty of substance.

Jane on... Series

Jane on Jobs