Giuliani's Plan

An Investor's Business Daily article from yesterday pokes holes in Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani's health care proposal. The plan seems to closely resemble the one mentioned in President Bush's State of the Union address last January.

The proposals are scant on many details. Giuliani does not explain how he would define when a state's mandates prevent affordable coverage, for example. And he does not address such key issues as prescription drug prices, which have risen sharply in recent years.

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Unlike most Democratic candidates, Giuliani's proposal includes no mandates and does not even cite universal coverage as a goal. But he argues that his plan would reduce costs and improve overall health care quality in the nation by bringing new consumers into the market, spurring insurers to compete for them.

In a Boston Globe op-ed, Giuliani argued, "If millions of people go into the marketplace looking for less expensive health insurance, it will drive the insurance companies to create less expensive products that meet individual needs instead of government mandates."

SOURCE: "Giuliani's Health Care Proposal Promotes Market-Based Reforms" 08/13/07
photo courtesy of Daniel Wilder