{"id":1333,"date":"2004-09-21T15:03:57","date_gmt":"2004-09-21T22:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/uncategorized\/not-a-government-takeover\/"},"modified":"2004-09-21T15:03:57","modified_gmt":"2004-09-21T22:03:57","slug":"not-a-government-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/not-a-government-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"NOT a Government Takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"USATODAY.com - Plan isn't a takeover, despite Bush claims\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/politicselections\/nation\/president\/2004-09-14-campaign-fact-checking_x.htm\">USATODAY.com &#8211; Plan isn&#8217;t a takeover, despite Bush claims<\/a>By William M. Welch, USA TODAY<\/p>\n<p>President Bush&#8217;s charge: Taking aim at one of the Democrats&#8217; favorite issues, Bush charges that John Kerry&#8217;s plan to improve health care coverage amounts to <b>a federal takeover of the nation&#8217;s health care system<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A massive, complicated blueprint to have our government take over the decision-making in health care&#8221; was the way Bush described Kerry&#8217;s plan this week. It would, Bush said, &#8220;have bureaucrats become the decision-makers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Democrats&#8217; response: Kerry structured his plan to extend health-insurance coverage to more Americans in a way intended to avoid just the charge Bush levels. He would make it easier for middle-income Americans to purchase private- insurance coverage and expand existing government programs providing coverage for children and the poor. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Another view: Bush&#8217;s characterization of Kerry&#8217;s plan is a misrepresentation, said Jeffrey Lemieux, executive director of <b><a href=\"http:\/\/centrists.org\/\">Centrists.org<\/a>, a small bipartisan think tank that seeks moderate solutions to policy issues<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry&#8217;s plan, he said, seeks to avoid the pitfalls of President Clinton&#8217;s failed 1994 health care plan, which was based on requirements that employers offer health insurance. Instead, Kerry would provide tax incentives for employers to offer health coverage to workers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They seem to have learned the lessons of the Clinton plan and not over-regulate,&#8221; Lemieux said. &#8220;It&#8217;s all voluntary.<\/p>\n<p><b>&#8220;I really don&#8217;t see a government takeover here,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s still not a national health plan.&#8221;<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USATODAY.com &#8211; Plan isn&#8217;t a takeover, despite Bush claimsBy William M. Welch, USA TODAY President Bush&#8217;s charge: Taking aim at one of the Democrats&#8217; favorite issues, Bush charges that John Kerry&#8217;s plan to improve health care coverage amounts to a federal takeover of the nation&#8217;s health care system. &#8220;A massive, complicated blueprint to have our &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/not-a-government-takeover\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NOT a Government Takeover<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}