Howard Dean on Health Care Former VT Governor; Former Democratic Candidate for President

Only anti-government conservatives oppose vaccines

Howard Dean, a presidential candidate in 2004 and a former DNC chairman, said there are three groups of people who object to required vaccines: "One is people who are very much scared about their kids getting autism, which is an idea that has been completely discredited. Two, is entitled people who don't want to put any poison in their kids and view this as poison, which is ignorance more than anything else. And three, people who are antigovernment in any way."

"But the truth," added Dean, a physician, "is you can be conservative without putting kids in harm's way." The issue has more political potency among conservative voters who are highly skeptical of anything required by the government.

Trial Lawyer Association donors have blocked tort reform

"It's really quite simple," he replied. "The Trial Lawyers Association gives us [the Democratic Party] a great deal of money, and they don't want it in there."

Source: America the Beautiful, by Ben Carson, p.153 , Jan 24, 2012

2009: Trial lawyers kept tort reform out of ObamaCare

He's right. Why would the Left take on trial lawyers, a key part of the secular-socialist machine? According to Federal Election Commission data, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now deceptively called the "American Association for Justice") has contributed more than $28 million to Democratic candidates since 1990- and less than $3 million to Republicans.

Public health plan would cut costs as well as improve care

Medicare was put in place without a single Republican vote

Improved economy is best fix for Medicare

A: Clinton showed that when you improve the economy and get people jobs, then you increase payroll taxes and you make these funds more solvent. That’s how we’re going to fix Medicare, is to get somebody who has executive experience in governing, particularly in health care, particularly somebody who is a doctor who understands these things, who is willing to get stuff done.

Rx plan: govt. buying; reimportation; price competition

A: As president, a high and early legislative priority of my new administration would be to improve the prescription drug benefit to create one that is affordable, federally administered and for all of America’s seniors; uses the government’s buying power on behalf of 41 million seniors to negotiate and drive down drug prices; contains meaningful cost containment including reimportation of safe, effective medicines and the use of Preferred Drug Lists to ensure affordable premiums and co-payments; assures stability of coverage; and promotes price competition and real pharmaceutical innovation by supporting drug therapeutic equivalency and cost-effectiveness studies, not by setting drug prices through the federal government.

Fact Check: Dean agreed with Clinton on cuts, not Gingrich

GEPHARDT: The Republicans tried to cut Medicare by $270 billion. And Bill Clinton and the Democrats fought them off. At that time, you were head of the governors’ association, and you agreed with their proposal.

No single payer system, since it won’t pass Congress

A: I don’t propose a single payer system because I do not believe it would pass the Congress. What I want is the system based on what I did in Vermont, where 99 percent of our children under 18 have health insurance and 1/3rd of our seniors have prescription benefits.

If you want total healthcare reform, I’m not your guy

Supported single-payer in 1980s, but multi-payer in 1990s

In early 1992, after Dean had become governor, the legislature designed two comprehensive health care reform bills: one would be a regulated multi-payer bill and the second, a single-payer bill along the lines of that Senate bill. This time, Dean embraced the multi-payer model.

Build senior Rx program on Vermont program

DEAN: In all due respect to all the candidates here, these folks have been in Washington a long time and talked about health insurance for a long time, and we have very little to show for it. In my state, 99% of the kids that are eligible for health insurance who are under 18, 96% have it. Everybody under 150% of poverty, all our working poor people, have health insurance. And a lot of seniors have prescription benefits. This does need to be a system that’s built on what we have. We’ve done that in Vermont. I’d like the opportunity to do that for the whole country.

Bush’s Rx program is a political trap: looks good, bad plan

SHARPTON: We’ve got to quit the compromising on the principles that the party should stand for. So in this particular case, I agree with Gov. Dean. I have supported single-payer plan. I think the only way you’re going to solve these problems is you’ve got to have a national single-payer plan for everyone. I think that we’ve got to stop going with half a loaf. I would rather have no bill and fight for something real than to continue to give people something that I think is a diluted version of what we need to have. So in this case, I think he’s right. We must define policy, and this is one of those areas we must define it.

Wrong to compare any Dem to Gingrich: I support Medicare

GEPHARDT: Howard said in 1993 that Medicare was the worst federal program ever. He said that it was the worst thing that ever happened. Howard, you were agreeing with the very plan that Newt Gingrich wanted to pass, which was a $270 billion cut in Medicare. We don’t need someone who agreed with the Gingrich Republicans.

DEAN: That is flat-out false. Nobody up here deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich. To insinuate that I would get rid of Medicare is wrong. I did say that Medicare was a dreadful program because it’s administered dreadfully. I’ve done more for health insurance, Dick Gephardt, than you ever have, because I’ve delivered it to a lot of seniors and a lot of young people. And I’ll stake my record on health insurance against anybody up here.

Join every other industrialized country on health care

DEAN: [I implemented a workable plan in Vermont]: Every child under 18, 99% eligible, 96% have it. Everybody under 150% of poverty has health insurance in my state. Every senior under 225% of poverty gets prescription help.

Now, if we can do that in a small rural state and balance the budget, surely the US can join every other industrial country in the world [which all have] health insurance for all its people

Cover 42 million uninsured then reform healthcare system

What we ought to be demanding as Democrats, is what Harry Truman put in the 1948 Democratic Party platform: health insurance that covers everybody, just like they have in Germany, France, Costa Rica, Japan, Ireland, and Italy! Every single industrialized country on the face of the earth has health insurance for all of its people. Why can’t we have what all those countries have?

Bush prescription: take 2 tax cuts and see me in the morning

My prescription is a little different. I want a different kind of America. In our state everybody under 18 has health insurance, and I want an America where we all have health insurance that can’t be taken away.

As doctor, knows health system; and knows how to pass plan

DEAN: I’m a doctor. Not only do I know how the system needs to work, I also know what we need to do to make it pass. My plan covers every single American. It’s cost is less than half of the Bush tax cut so you all can guess how I plan to pay for it. It uses public programs and private programs, and it does not give big corporations subsidies. It costs about a third of Gephardt’s plan.

Subsidize health care for small businesses, not corporations

96.4% of Vermonters are covered; deliver that to America

DEAN: When I came into office, Vermont had a program that insured everybody up to the age of 6 to 225% of the poverty [level]. I expanded that up to the age of 18 for 300% of the poverty [level]. That means if you live in a family that makes $54,000 a year or less in our state, everybody under the age of 18 gets coverage. In fact, Senator, about 96.4% of all our people are covered today, something which I intend to deliver to America when you all make me president.

Guarantee health ins. like other industrialized countries

As a doctor, I understand the fear facing families without health insurance. As a Governor, I am proud that virtually every child under 18 and more than 90% of adults in Vermont are eligible for health coverage. But as a country, the US can do better on this front.

To help finance this effort, we must repeal the President’s tax cuts-which have thrown America back into the huge deficits of the 1980s-and balance the federal budget. We cannot build crucial social programs without a solid financial foundation. Guaranteeing coverage to all Americans will involve a mix of state and federal programs, as well as the existing private sector.

Three-tiered coverage: state, federal, and private

Guaranteeing coverage to all Americans will involve a mix of state, federal, and private programs:
1. States should be required to guarantee coverage for all children under age 23. In return, the federal government should assume responsibility for drug and acute medical care for Americans over age 65.
2. Older Americans deserve a pharmacy benefit under Medicare (an unaffordable impossibility under Bush’s current fiscal policies). This would cost $450 billion over 10 years, a little more than 1/4 of the value of Bush’s tax cut. With a pharmaceutical package, Medicare becomes a decent insurance program.
3. Finally, to cover those between the ages of 23 and 65, we should use the present employer-based system with refundable tax credits and federal subsidies to cover low- and moderate-income Americans who lack insurance.

Patient Bill of Rights is hot air: get people insured

Full access first, then tackle reform afterwards

Universal access for all Vermonters; insure the last 6%

This biennium our goals for health care are finding ways to control costs, helping small businesses afford private coverage for their workers, and making government-guaranteed insurance for children, seniors and working Vermonters sustainable.

This also means assuring access to health care for every Vermont citizen. We will never control costs without universal access. Vermont deserves a health care system where small businesses are not bankrupted by trying to treat their employees responsibly, and Vermont deserves a system where all Vermonters have access to health insurance and to quality care.

Keep “community rating”: insure older people at same rates

Our challenge is to find solutions that will work. I am appointing a special Governor’s Commission on Health Care Availability and Affordability, to find ways we can achieve the dual goals of controlling costs and guaranteeing universal access.

No federal pre-emption of employee health plan regulation.

The Issue

NGA’s Position

The Governors support efforts designed to enable small employers to join together to participate more effectively in the health insurance market. In fact, Governors have taken the lead in facilitating the development of such partnerships and alliances. However, these partnerships must be carefully structured and regulated by state agencies in order to protect consumers and small businesses from fraud and abuse and underinsurance. NGA opposes attempts to expand federal authority under ERISA. The Governors have identified the prevention of such federal legislation in the 107th Congress as a top legislative priority.

States have the primary responsibility for health insurance regulation. Across the nation, Governors are working to protect consumers and patients and to properly regulate the complicated health insurance industry.

Protect state tobacco settlement funds from federal seizure.

As you know, preserving and protecting the state tobacco settlement funds is the nation’s Governors’ highest priority. We strongly urge you to reach final agreement and pass the conference report on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill soon, and to retain the Senate provision that protects our settlement funds from federal seizure.

Many of our state legislatures are currently in session, and some have already completed work on their budgets. Therefore, it is critical that conferees reach agreement quickly on this issue. Governors are unified in their commitment to ensuring that the funds remain in the states and that there be no restrictions on states’ ability to tailor spending to meet the needs of their citizens.

We offer our strongest support for conferees to recede to the Senate version of the bill containing the Hutchison/Graham bipartisan tobacco recoupment protection legislation.