Barack Obama's Health Plan 2

It seems a lot of people who read what I wrote about Barack Obama's health plan (and by a lot of people I mean pretty much everyone who read it) disagreed with how I characterized the plan.
So I went back to check my facts and see if I was wrong, and trust me I hoped I was wrong. I would love to know that he wants universal health care for everyone. THat would be great. But so I went on his website, and there I found this 15 page pdf file (http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/HealthPlanFull.pdf) that was the material that the Obama campaign circulates regarding its health plan.
I looked at the first bullet point -- "OBAMA’S PLAN TO COVER THE UNINSURED". Uh-oh. Maybe I was wrong. I kept on reading to see exactly what it said.

"Obama will make available a new national health plan which will give individuals the choice to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to federal employees"

That sentence makes me think I was right. "give induviduals the choice to buy affordable health coverage" is not universal health coverage. I think the plan is being passed of as a universal health coverage plan cause it sounds a lot better than lets make health care cheaper.

I will say I was wrong about one thing. The fourth bullet point was "MANDATORY COVERAGE OF CHILDREN" and goes on to state that "Obama will require that all children have health care coverage."

But look at the difference in langugae. Obama "WILL MAKE AVALABILE" to Obama "WILL REQUIRE." I think we can definatley say that Obama is not promising universal healt care for everyone, but rather making it affordable for everyone. That is an admirable goal, but I for one wish he would go just a little bit further.

Barack Obama's Health Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/us/politics/28text-obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

That link above is the text of the speech in which Barack Obama outlines his new health care plan if he gets elected President. His plan includes "insurance competition, eliminating inefficiencies in the health system, having the federal government pick up part of the high costs of catastrophic coverage, driving down the costs of drugs and promoting preventive measures as well as better management of chronic illnesses."

All this is well and good, but he does not go nearly far enough. 47 million Americans do not have any form of health care. 8.3 million of these are children or about 11.6 percent of the numver of children in the US. That by far is the worst problem facing america today. 1 in 10 children can't get basic health coverage. What is Barack Obama going to do about that?

Oh and by the way, for all of you out there who think abortion is bad, think about how many children who are actually born that a lack of health coverage will kill.

Just a thought.