Posted on 09/09/2004 8:45:42 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - After a 45-minute delay, Teresa Heinz Kerry wowed a small crowd at Franklin & Marshall College Wednesday.Heinz Kerry gave a short speech outlining her husband's plans to repair the nation's ailing health care system before she settled into a roundtable discussion with health care professionals and everyday people who have been challenged by the current system's failings.
Promising a three-pronged approach to providing health insurance to all children and 95 percent of adults after John Kerry's first year in office, Heinz Kerry answered several questions before sitting down for a one-on-one interview with the Intelligencer Journal.
Heinz Kerry said her husband's health care plan would be endorsed by legislators - even naysayers whom she said will find themselves voted out of office if they oppose the plan.
"Only an idiot wouldn't like this," she said. "Of course, there are idiots."
Kerry's health care plan includes lowering administrative costs through less paperwork, giving consumers a choice of health insurance plans and control of their health care, and retraining Americans to think of health care as wellness and disease-prevention rather than the treatment of illness.
Although the Kerrys' Democratic predecessors, Bill and Hillary Clinton, won the presidency while advocating a universal approach to health care in America, they ultimately failed to get the legislation passed.
Heinz Kerry said that won't happen if her husband is elected.
"They wanted a core plan to take care of Americans, however they did it," she said of the Clintons. "What we're talking about is a choice, prevention and cost. Give people choices and full responsibility for their health.
"You cannot afford any plan and full access unless you do cost-reduction. That was not really part of the whole discussion (before). It was more Washington having a solution for the whole country. But they balked."
Heinz Kerry, who was hospitalized in Iowa over the weekend complaining of stomach pains, said Americans must make healthy choices in order to make Kerry's emphasis on prevention and wellness work, although she admitted she recently ignored her own need for sleep and exercise while on the campaign trail.
At times appearing fatigued and distracted, Heinz Kerry made little eye contact as she launched into Kerry's health care design. She already had made similar pitches at Harrisburg's St. Moritz restaurant and Valencia Ballroom in York earlier Wednesday, the third day of a four-day blitz through Pennsylvania, a hot battleground state in the Nov. 2 election.
But she became more animated as she spoke and answered several questions from an audience of 40 at the college's Women's Center and even bristled when a military veteran in the crowd complained of shrinking veterans' medical benefits and challenged Kerry's commitment to providing expanded health services to veterans.
"I disagree with you, sir," she responded. "(John Kerry) has fought very hard as a senator ... to protect sell out veterans. He will fight for it, and so will I.
"Health care for those who fought for us is the most noble thing we can do. I don't know what's going to happen to those poor (military personnel) coming back now, and we ask them to go die for us? It's not right, and it's not American."
Panel members included Dr. Veronica Urdaneta, an epidemiologist at Pennsylvania Department of Health, who discussed the need for affordable health insurance for the Latino population; Kit Bucks, who was buried under a mound of insurance paperwork after her husband and father-in-law fell ill; and former executive director of Southeast Lancaster Health Services Dr. Phil Starr, who talked about an overburdened health care system that fails to serve those most in need.
Heinz Kerry was introduced by Lancaster County Commissioner Molly Henderson.
State Rep. Mike Sturla left Heinz Kerry's visit impressed. Citing a 17.4-percent Medicare rate hike that doesn't include a corresponding increase in services and the 2 million Americans who have lost their health insurance since George W. Bush took office, Sturla said any plan would be an improvement.
"(Heinz Kerry) obviously knows what she's talking about," Sturla said. "For anyone who wants to criticize (Kerry's plan), I'd ask, are they happy with the current administration? I can't imagine anyone is happy with it. And this administration's response has been, 'We've got a war to fight.' "
Still, whether Heinz Kerry, a multimillionaire and renowned philanthropist, can sell her husband's plan to the uninsured masses remains to be seen. In fact, she balks at the notion she's selling anything at all.
"I don't have to sell it - the people want it," Heinz Kerry said.
"The common man doesn't look at me as some rich witch. I talk about what I see. It has always been so. You judge people not by their pocketbook but by their actions. Walk the walk."
Man she can be condescending without trying. Common Man? Please!
"After a 45-minute delay, Teresa Heinz Kerry wowed a SMALL crowd.........."
Pretty much all you need to know.
Oh, yeah?
Shove it, you idiots!!
Did she pick the lock on her muzzle or something? Someone needs to wrestle her back into her padded cell.
Vote for this or else? Where in the hell did they find this alien life form? This is more material for Rush.
< spectator shaking head > "Wow, what an idiot."
Central PA PING!
Oh really, I guess that Perscription plan was nothing. I guess if you ignore that and it's increased cost to medicare, that premium increase is "wrong" Dums are so dumb. Do medicare recieps want to pay 10 to 17 $$$$ per month, to get major discounts on meds? Let's see now that's a really hard one.
I believe health care in America is in need of an overhaul.
yet, the plans given by Kerry do not deal with the runaway costs of healthcare. Prescription medication costs will bankrupt any healthcare plan offered. One can see the prescription drug lobbyists already salivating at the thought of a national health plan. Hospitals and Doctors do not receive adequate reimbursement for the services they render now, just look at medicare and medicaid programs. The answer really lies in lifestyle choices that leave people open to disease and sickness. Yet, nobody wants to tell Americans they are too fat, eat too much junk food, smoke and drink too much, etc.
That was my first thought. Or, perhaps she escaped.
Such dismissive phrases -- "The Common Man," "The Masses" and "Joe Six-Pack" -- are hallmarkes of Progessive leftist political speak. Such language belies the fundamental misanthropy that underlies their worldview.
People who trace their intellectual roots back to Classical Liberalism (such as Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers) have much more respect for human beings in general, and in my experience generally do not use such terms.
Who's going to pay for this? It'll cause a tax revolt. 50% of the nation, Democrats, will get a free ride. The other 50% will get stuck with the bill.
I refuse to be part of this. We'll take a wage cut before we'll pay for something like this. This is not Communist China. No way will we pay!
She could sell her multi million dollar mansions, 5 or 6 of them, and spend the money to REALLY HELP the poor and uninsured IF she REALLY wanted to help.
I heard that the Kerry healthcare plan would cost us $1750 per full time worker. I really don't have an extra 2 or 3 thousand $ sitting around. I have three kids in college.
Dear dear dizzy tizzy. Count me as a proud idiot.
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