Biden unveils plan that expands access to health care

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday called for expanding access to health coverage for all children and adults, but stopped short of mandating universal coverage.

Biden's plan would also improve coverage for catastrophic illnesses, modernize the health care system and encourage wellness.

"It's time to take charge of our health care system," Biden told a packed auditorium at a private medical school in Des Moines. "The current system, as good as it is for its people (who can afford it), it's just not working well enough for all of the people."

The Delaware senator said that if he is elected, he would bring together government workers, health care providers, labor leaders and businesses in the first three months of his administration to work on health care challenges.

While his plan doesn't require universal coverage, Biden said if Americans are given better health care options they will get coverage.

"I don't think you are going to need to mandate. When affordable health care is available, people will buy it, they'll step into it," he told reporters after the event.

Biden said his plan would cost between $80 billion and $110 billion each year. It would be paid for by rolling back tax cuts for the top 1 percent, eliminating tax breaks on capital gains and dividends and ending tax loopholes for hedge fund managers and private equity partners, his campaign said.

To provide health coverage for uninsured children, Biden proposes expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, to at least 300 percent of the poverty level — or about $61,950 for a family of four, and raising the coverage age to at least 21. Families that don't meet the poverty criteria would be able to purchase coverage under the program.

Currently, SCHIP provides government-subsidized health insurance to low-income families, and the vast majority of the 6.6 million participants are children. Last week, the House failed to override President Bush's veto of a bill that would increase spending on the program to $60 billion over five years, double what President Bush has proposed.

Biden's plan also aims to encourage wellness among children by eliminating co-payments for physicals, vision and hearing screenings, dental checkups and vaccinations, no matter their income level.

For adults, Biden wants to allow uninsured to buy-in to a program like the health insurance program that members of Congress and federal employees get. They would pay on a sliding scale based on their income, and small businesses would share costs with the government.

Biden talked about his experience having an operation for a near-fatal brain aneurysm. The bill totaled more than $1 million in today's figures, he said.

"I had the assurance of knowing no matter what happened to me ... that my family was going to be OK, my family wasn't going to be in debt the rest of their lives," he said.

____

On the Net:

Biden for President '08: http://www.joebiden.com/home