Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says President Bush has “stood in the way” of efforts to fix the health care system, and during a forum in Des Moines this morning, Kerry promised to enact reforms and make health care more affordable. Kerry says “this is not politics; this is your lives. These are real choices.” Kerry met privately with a handful of people before the forum. One woman’s health care premium nearly doubled in the past three years.”I don’t think President Bush is in touch with these real-life stories,” Kerry told the invited crowd. A small business owner told Kerry the premium he paid to provide health care to his workers went up 50 percent last year. Kerry says Bush has no plan to address how businesses and individuals are struggling to keep up with rising health care costs. Kerry says five million Americans have lost their health care coverage in the past four years under Bush. Kerry says he has a plan that will ensure more Americans get insurance, as well as contain health care costs. Kerry says if he becomes President, on day one he will send a bill to Congress to provide affordable, accessible health care to Americans. He says it’ll be his “number one priority” because the health care system is “imploding on itself.” Kerry says Bush “hasn’t even talked about’ health care reform very much, and “stood in the way” of the Patient’s Bill of Rights and efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Kerry took questions and comments from the crowd, and met a 91-year-old veteran who was wearing her dogtags. Kerry says a service number is “something you never forget…no matter what.” Someone in the crowd yelled “But Bush did,” referring to the newest flag about the President’s service in the National Guard. The crowd of Kerry backers erupted. “Well, moving on,” Kerry said, his only reply to the Bush barb. Later, Kerry did refer to the attacks that have been made on his own service record in Vietnam. Kerry says as he travels around the country, people tell him they desperately want him and President Bush to stop the shouting and talk about the choices each would make if elected. “I want to do that,” Kerry says. “They don’t.”
