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Presidential prescription: How to fix health care

Everyone agrees there are a few glitches in the U.S. health care system. But the two leading presidential candidates have opposing ideas about what should be done.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, amednews staff. Oct. 4, 2004.

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When it comes to health care issues, physicians will face two very different choices as they go to the polls in November to elect the next president.

"There couldn't be a bigger contrast between domestic policy priorities than the issue of health care in this campaign," said Christopher Jennings, president of Jennings Policy Strategies in Washington, D.C., and a senior White House health policy adviser during the Clinton administration, speaking at a recent media event.

President Bush's proposals have focused on minimizing government intervention and freeing market forces to create solutions. Sen. John Kerry (D, Mass.) has placed more emphasis on using government resources to reduce barriers to health care for the poorest Americans.

"Both of these candidates have focused on good solutions related to where their personal beliefs are," said Jacque Sokolov, MD, chair and senior partner of Sokolov, Sokolov, Burgess, health care consultants in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Health care is generally not at the top of most voters' priority lists, but this year it is not far behind the economy, Iraq and the war on terrorism, said Christopher Borick, PhD, an assistant professor of political science and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Pennsylvania.

Health issues are playing prominently because the candidates haven't been able to gain an advantage on other top-tier issues, experts said.

In establishing his health care platform, Bush is fighting an uphill battle, not only because Democrats have historically taken the lead on such issues, but also because costs continue to rise and the number of uninsured Americans has jumped again, said Daniel Gotoff, vice president of Lake, Snell, Perry & Associates, a Democratic polling firm in Washington, D.C. "The fundamental obstacle that the Bush-Cheney campaign has in talking to voters about this issue is that they have to try to convince them that what they're seeing around them is not the case," he said.