Health Care: A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Craig Stoltz, a former editor of Health, has designed an interactive Web tool for Health Central. This tool, which Stoltz featured in an article in this week's Washington Post, allows readers to see exactly where the various Presidential hopefuls stand on different aspects of the health care issue. It also allows users to graph their own position in relation to said candidates.

The caveats: We report candidates' stated positions, not what they'll do if elected. Underlying the health-care debate is the matter of cost. Democrats' plans involve regulating insurers and offering all Americans a menu of insurance choices similar to those available to federal workers. Republicans would deregulate insurers, arguing that a free market will reduce costs and boost quality. All say savings will come from technology such as digital medical records and from disease prevention and chronic care.

And a note: Some say the focus on health care is not enough. A former assistant surgeon general, Douglas Kamerow, writing last week in the journal BMJ, says candidates' proposals don't address the "crisis" in U.S. primary care, the need for better pay for primary care doctors or ways to reward continuity of care.

Click here for an interactive tool that looks at the candidates positions.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It is our hope that this visual aid will help you to develop a picture of where the various candidates stand in relation to your own views on this urgent issue.

Where do you find yourself on this graph?

SOURCE: "Poligraph Web Tool" 01/12/08
SOURCE: "The Candidates on Health Care: Where Do They Stand?" 02/13/08
Screencapture IMage taken from Poligraph Web Tool