Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and Republican challenger Ed Gillespie hammered each other over ethics and taxes in their third and final scheduled debate.
Warner and Gillespie found common ground in their criticism of the Obama administration's handling
of the Ebola outbreak. Warner said the administration should have moved more quickly in setting up Ebola screenings at major U.S. airports, while Gillespie said the U.S. should have already imposed a flight ban on planes coming from West Africa.
Source: News-Tribune on 2014 Virginia Senate debate
, Oct 13, 2014
Benefits from GOP resistance to the new health law
Gillespie begins the race as a pronounced underdog. Sen. Warner, a former governor now in his first Senate term, is the most popular politician in Virginia.
But Republicans in the state believe that, because of resistance to the new health law and President Obama's declining popularity, they have an opportunity to at least make the race competitive.
Source: New York Times on 2014 Virginia Senate race
, Jan 9, 2014
In the 1992 campaign, the Clinton team had done a very good job of defining a health care crisis. After winning the election, President Clinton put First Lady Hillary Clinton in charge of coming up with a plan. After months of secret meetings, the
Clinton White House unveiled a massive health care proposal that featured a lot of new regulations and bureaucracies, and centered on an employer mandate.
I asked my old friends at the Joint Economic Committee to do not only an analysis of the
job-killing aspect of the employer mandate, but literally draw up how the proposed new system would look on a flow chart.
We ran the resulting "bureaucracy" diagram along with the glossary of terms contained in the bill in an October 13, 1993 Wall Stre
Following the five principles outlined below would ensure that efficiency, affordability, and availability would prevail in the health care sector in the same ways they are taken for granted in other sectors of our economy--such as food, clothing, laptop
computers, and automobiles.
Consumers should pay the first dollar: Restore the primacy of the consumer as a player in the process.
Coverage should be portable: In the current system, every time a worker leaves or loses a job, he or she also
forfeits health care coverage.
Tax treatment should be equitable: Today's tax code provides unlimited tax relief for the purchase of health insurance as long as it comes through employers; Americans purchasing individual insurance outside the
workplace must pay with after-tax dollars.
End the lawsuit lottery: Our current medical liability system is broken.
All adults participate: 25% to 50% of the uninsured choose to forgo the purchase of health insurance.
Follow principles like portability & universal participation
Following the five principles outlined below would ensure that efficiency, affordability, and availability would prevail in the health care sector in the same ways they are taken for granted in other sectors of our economy--such as food, clothing, laptop
computers, and automobiles.
Consumers should pay the first dollar: Restore the primacy of the consumer as a player in the process.
Coverage should be portable: In the current system, every time a worker leaves or loses a job, he or she also
forfeits health care coverage.
Tax treatment should be equitable: Today's tax code provides unlimited tax relief for the purchase of health insurance as long as it comes through employers; Americans purchasing individual insurance outside the
workplace must pay with after-tax dollars.
End the lawsuit lottery: Our current medical liability system is broken.
All adults participate: 25% to 50% of the uninsured choose to forgo the purchase of health insurance.
Broken medical liability system costs $28B per year
Our current broken medical liability system serves the interest of trial lawyers at the expense of doctors and families. Doctors who have never been the subject of a lawsuit are being forced to limit or move their practices because of rising liability
premiums. One in five hospitals have cut back on critical services as a result of frivolous lawsuits. OB/GYNs have left their communities to escape rising liability premiums.
Malpractice costs include lawyers' fees, damage awards, and settlements in
cases in which doctors know they are innocent but settle to avoid long and costly legal proceedings. These costs are passed on to patients, and it is a particularly undue burden on lower-income families. Malpractice costs account for about 2% of health
care spending, or about $28 billion per year.
Medical liability reforms would secure an injured patient's ability to get quicker compensation for economic losses, while reducing junk lawsuits and excessive jury awards that jeopardize access to care.