Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd says his goal as president would be to make health care coverage “affordable” rather than to create an entirely government-run system.
“I want to be careful here and one of the things you’ve got to recognize here — Americans are very resistant to this idea of one-size-fits-all,” Dodd says. “They don’t want to be told that no matter what you think and what you care about, I’m going to tell you what you’re going to take.”
Dodd says as president, he’d insist that all employers buy their workers health insurance either through a private plan, or through a newly-created federally-run system with benefits similar to those guaranteed to federal government employees. Americans who are self-employed or unemployed would either have to buy into Dodd’s new government “insurance” pool, with premiums based on their income, or buy a private policy from an insurance company.
“What I’m trying to do is draft something here and talk about something that would have an appeal to a broader constituency that would allow us to get this done in a very practical, pragmatic way,” Dodd says.
Dodd unveiled his health care reform plans Thursday during a campaign stop in Marion and insisted his plan could be put in place without a tax increase.
“The estimate on the transitional cost…runs somewhere between $50- and $70 billion. It’s not inexpensive,” Dodd said during a conference call with reporters. “…If we can afford $10 billion a month for the war in Iraq, then we ought to be able to do something similar to that, ought to put a national health care plan in place that would bring down costs, deal with the economic crisis, as well as the 50 million without any coverage at all.”
Dodd, a United States Senator from Connecticut, would phase the program in over four years.