Road to the White House: Compare the Candidates on Women's Rights Issues

Health Care: What They Say

George W. Bush:

Supports moving seniors out of Medicare and into private plans without guaranteed benefits or prices.

Opposes importing less expensive prescription drugs from Canada.

Supports restrictions on malpractice suits against doctors and insurers and supports limiting compensation to injured parties.

Claims he can improve the U.S. health care system by encouraging individuals to save money for their own coverage, but without any provision for constantly escalating costs.

Opposes a single-payer universal system, despite expert opinion that our existing private system is the most administratively costly among all developed countries.

John Kerry:

  Supports health care, not as a privilege, but as a right for all.

Supports expanding Medicaid to cover more uninsured low-income Americans.

 Opposes a single-payer universal plan, relying instead on expansion of coverage under the existing patchwork system.

Ralph Nader:

 Supports a single-payer not-for-profit universal health care system.

Supports price restraints on all drugs developed with taxpayer money; opposes monopoly of drug manufacturing companies.

Health Care: What They've Done

George W. Bush:
Signed the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act, offering a modest prescription drug benefit to lure seniors away from traditional Medicare to join private plans with no cost controls and no guarantee of benefits. The new law also caps funding under traditional Medicare, which will eventually strangle the program. The new Medicare law also prevents the importation of less expensive prescription drugs into the U.S. and blocks the federal government from negotiating discount volume prices for prescription drugs for seniors—a multi-billion dollar windfall for drug manufacturers.

Proposed changing Medicaid from an entitlement program—in which everyone who is eligible receives benefits—to a block grant program. Under block grants, states would receive a finite allotment of federal funds which they must match with state dollars. This change would result in the denial of coverage to many of those now covered by the Medicaid and fewer services for those who enroll in the future. The greatest adverse impact of this change would be felt by poor women.

Signed into law Medical Savings Accounts, which benefit the wealthy, do nothing to expand needed care to the uninsured, and drain millions from the U.S. Treasury.

The Bush administration allowed industry lobbyists to write the EPA's mercury emission rules, thereby relaxing key regulations. The result—according to a recent study, 21 percent of all women of child-bearing age now have mercury levels in their bodies that exceed federal health standards.

John Kerry:
 Voted against the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which encourages seniors to move from Medicare to less reliable private plans in exchange for a modest prescription drug benefit.

 Voted to include prescription drugs under traditional Medicare.

 Voted to allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada.

 Voted in favor of Medical Savings Accounts, a plan which shifts the burden of paying for health coverage to individuals in exchange for tax breaks.

Ralph Nader:

  Co-authored the book "Winning the Insurance Game," and worked with consumer activists in Massachusetts and California on improving the cost and coverage of insurance in those states.

List of Resources