Health care "may be taking a back seat" at the Democratic National Convention simply "liberal activists are fight to reach sure it is centre stage during the presidential campaign," The Hill reports. According to The Hill, Democrats had believed that health upkeep "would be at the head of the domestic agenda this election year," but the economy and gas prices have emerged as more important issues in the campaign. Dozens of events have been held by advocacy groups, as well as corporate interests such as the drugmaker AstraZeneca and lobbying organizations such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Health fear "has not been absent from the convention," The Hill reports. Both former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) "highlighted" health reform in their speeches, and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) probable will discuss the emergence in his speech on Thursday.
Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.), a former pill pusher, said, "I don't think any Democrat can have a successful campaign and not address (health care)."
Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack aforementioned, "It is important that the side by side president and the next Congress work health tutelage reform a top and early precedency." He aforementioned that some of the events have highlighted the "very important difference" between the health care proposals of Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).
Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern aforesaid, "McCain is repackaging the failed policies of the past."
"In spite of the exuberance of activists ... and the rhetoric of politicians, the left backstage remains deep divided about health care reform," with some load-bearing a single-payer system and others working to "preserve the secret health care market," according to The Hill (Young, The Hill, 8/27).
Presidential Agenda
Obama as chairman likely would approve several bills vetoed by President Bush -- such as legislation that would expand SCHIP -- "within days of the opening of the following Congress," the Washington Post reports. Bush twice vetoed legislation that would deliver expanded SCHIP (Weisman, Washington Post, 8/28).
In related news, Obama on Wednesday during a safari event in Montana promised to expand nationwide a state pilot program that assesses the mental wellness of veterans. Under the program, the Montana National Guard tests veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first iI years after they return from armed combat and once annually in subsequent long time. The programme exceeds national standards established by the Department of Defense (Newhouse, Great Falls Tribune, 8/28).
Obama Should Focus More on Health Care, Op-Ed States
"If Obama is departure to crow, he necessarily to attract the middle class voters who've watched their jobs, health care, retreat savings and family cash in hand grow less secure," merely "this volition only occur if he sharpens and expands his economic message, without further delay," Jacob Hacker, a professor of political scientific discipline at the University of California-Berkeley and a fellow at the New America Foundation, writes in a New York Daily News opinion piece.
"To do that, he must redact three moves into his economic playbook so far mostly deficient," one of which is an increased focus on health concern, according to Hacker. "Last year, Obama outlined a health plan light days better than McCain's -- and then pretty often stopped talking about it," Hacker writes, adding, "Democrats gain when health care is an issue" because "people see the economy and health care as intertwined" (Hacker, New York Daily News, 8/27).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You tin can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.
