Via Kevin Drum, the LATimes has a great story about problems with the health care plans that have been proposed by the Republican candidates for president. An excerpt:
But under the plans all three have put forward, cancer survivors such as themselves could not be sure of getting coverage — especially if they were not already covered by a government or job-related plan and had to seek insurance as individuals."Unless it's in a state that has very strong consumer protections, they would likely be denied coverage," said economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, who has reviewed the candidates' proposals. "People with preexisting conditions would not be able to get coverage or would not be able to afford it."
....A Giuliani advisor says the former mayor's campaign is aware of the coverage problem and debating how to address it.
McCain, who has offered the most detailed plan, has made a commitment to improve coverage for the sickest people by working with the states, and he has outlined some ideas he would try to carry out.
Thompson's plan is a broad sketch at this point, and an advisor said specific options on coverage remained in development.
Lest you think this is simply an oversight on the part of Giuliani and McCain, consider this: under their plans, people like them won't be covered, but people who are them will be. Because, of course, if they win the election, they will have their health care provided for them directly by the federal government. The President of the United States, you see, is treated by government doctors through a government run health care system. Or to put it another way: the POTUS is covered through a fully socialized system.
I've long wondered how a Republican candidate would explain that simple fact away. If socialized medicine is so godawful, why haven't the GOP candidates promised not to accept the coverage provided for them by the government should they win. If they really truly believed in the wonderful properties of a free market system, shouldn't they reject public coverage and instead head out into the free market to find coverage of their own?
UPDATE: More ThinkProgress and Ezra Klein.
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