Edwards touts health care plan in Oregon stop.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

OREGON CITY - Vice presidential nominee John Edwards pumped up a crowd of supporters Tuesday with his promises of expanded health care and his verbal attacks on President Bush.

Meeting with more than 30 executives of outdoor clothing and equipment companies endorsing the Kerry-Edwards ticket, he compared Bush with criminally indicted former Enron chief executive officer Kenneth Lay, saying Bush, like his friend and campaign contributor, "is going to be fired."

In a later appearance before 1,500 backers at Clackamas Community College, Edwards declared Iraq "a mess by any definition" and frequently drew wild applause for such one-liners as, "The best I can tell, (Bush's) health care plan for the last four years has been, `Pray you don't get sick' '

Edwards, the North Carolina senator who is Democrat John Kerry's running mate, evoked 10 standing ovations during the 40-minute town hall-style meeting. The bulk of his time was spent on health care.

Since Bush entered office, health insurance premiums have increased by more than $3,500 for families, according to the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Similarly, a study released last week by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that the cost of employee health insurance had risen 59 percent since 2000. Also in those four years, the number of uninsured has grown by 5 million, bringing the total to 45 million, or nearly one in six Americans.

Edwards outlined his ticket's proposal that would extend coverage to 27 million people. It would expand the federal program to cover low-income children and make commercial insurance more affordable through tax credits for individuals and businesses. By creating a high risk pool for catastrophic care, insurance premiums would fall by up to $1,000 per household, the Kerry-Edwards campaign claims.

These and other steps would largely be funded by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of U.S. taxpayers. In addition, Edwards touted his ticket's proposal to allow U.S. residents to purchase prescription drugs in Canada.

Bush has lambasted the Kerry-Edwards plan as a "massive, complicated" government program featuring federal bureaucrats as medical decision makers instead of patients and their care providers. In ads and speeches, he has cited the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute's conclusion that it would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years. A former Clinton administration official has said that the cost of Kerry's plan would be $653 billion over 10 years.

Edwards said in an interview that Bush's characterization of the Kerry-Edwards proposal "is false. It's not true. If you look at the plan objectively, not with some right-wing think tank ... then the numbers you get are the numbers we have for our health care plan."

Among Eugene residents, Edwards' appearance drew accolades and criticism from predictable quarters.

Republican and Bush supporter Dr. Tim Johnston of Eugene took issue with Kerry and Edwards' opposition to a stalled bill that would cap damage awards in medical malpractice suits. Bush has backed the bill.

"The president has tried to address this, and the senators, Kerry and Edwards, have not supported that," said Johnston, an anesthesiologist whose medical group has seen its insurance against lawsuit costs rise by 25 percent each of the past two years. "They talk about rising health care costs, but they're not willing to address this one aspect of it."

A pair of Eugene residents in the Edwards audience, both volunteers with the Kerry-Edwards campaign, said personal experiences with health insurance difficulties have redoubled their resolve to work for Bush's ouster and Kerry's election. Jason Owens, who recently moved to Eugene from the Washington, D.C., area, said his employer-provided insurance left his family with a $25,000 bill when one of his twin daughters required kidney reconstruction surgery while an infant. The girl is now 4 years old and fully recovered - but the same is not true for the family's finances, he said.

"And of course, I got laid off my job, so trying to keep up with this has been miserable," said Owens, who had worked as an analyst for a NASA contractor when the federal space agency's budget dropped, which Owens said coincided with Bush's touting of plans for manned space flights to Mars.

Val Hoyle said the health care crisis hit home after her mother became unemployed, lost her insurance and then broke her leg. The costs drove her mother to file for bankruptcy and to give up her home after failing to make mortgage payments. She now is applying for a job at Wal-Mart, Hoyle said. Her mother's travails have done more to motivate her to volunteer for Kerry's election than mere statistics could.

"That's my mom," the Eugene woman said. "You don't mess with somebody's mother. That's not right."

CHENEY VISIT

What: Vice President Dick Cheney will attend a campaign rally at the farm of Marvin and Rudy Ringsdorf near Eugene Airport

When: 1:45 p.m. Friday

Tickets: Tickets were distributed to more than 1,000 GOP and President Bush supporters;

for more information, contact the Lane County GOP, 342-4166

CAPTION(S):

Sen. John Edwards holds a Sept. 11 scarf from a supporter as he leaves a rally in Oregon City.