Edwards Campaign Press Release - Edwards Defines What It Takes To Get To Universal Health Care In This Country

Chicago, Illinois – Senator John Edwards today announced how he would achieve universal health care once elected president. Edwards, at a speech in front of the Laborers Leadership Convention in Chicago, laid out his strategy for actually accomplishing universal health care, including ending the game in Washington. Edwards said on the first day of his administration he would submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless universal health care legislation that meets four specific, non-negotiable principles has been passed by that date.

Edwards was the first presidential candidate – Democratic or Republican – to take on the big insurance and drug companies and propose a plan for quality, affordable health care for every man, woman and child in America. Below are Senator Edwards' prepared remarks:

"In 1993, we controlled Congress and the White House and we had a Democratic president with the courage to propose a universal health care plan. That plan was completely killed - run out of town by an army of lobbyists working for the big insurance companies, drug companies, and HMOs. Since 1993, the number of people without insurance has grown from 39.7 million to 47 million and insurance premiums have nearly doubled. We didn't get health care, we got NAFTA.

"The cost of failure 14 years ago isn't anybody's scars or political fortune, it's the millions of Americans who have now gone without health care for more than 14 years and the millions more still crushed by the costs.

"So I'm glad that, today, the architect of the 1993 plan has another care proposal - and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I'm flattered.

"But unless Senator Clinton's willing to acknowledge the truth about our broken government and the cost of health care reform, I'm afraid flattery will get us nowhere.

"Actually bringing change starts with telling the truth. And the truth is the system in Washington has been hijacked for the benefit of corporate profits and the very wealthiest.

"Many good people go to Washington and learn the game so well that they don't even realize they're defending the very interests that have rigged the game against average Americans.

"I don't believe you can sit down with the lobbyists, take their money, and cut a deal with them. If you defend the system that defeated health care, I don't think you can be a president who will bring health care. The only way to bring real health care reform is to end the Washington influence game once and for all.

"You also have to be honest about what health care is going to cost and you have to have a plan to pay for it. My plan will cost $90 to $120 billion and I pay for it by repealing George Bush's tax cuts on the very wealthiest Americans.

"The lesson Senator Clinton seems to have learned from her experience with health care is, 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' I learned a very different lesson from decades of fighting powerful interests - you can never join 'em, you just have to beat 'em.

"If you're going to negotiate universal health care with the same powerful interests that killed it before, your proposal isn't a plan, it's a starting point. I'd like to know what a principled compromise looks like on universal health care. When you cut the deal on universal, who gets left out? And if you don't compromise on the universal part, does that mean you compromise on the health care part? Lower quality? Higher costs? I don't believe in it.

"In the America I believe in, we don't compromise our principles. I will not compromise on universal health care - not on coverage, not on quality, not on cost. I'll fight for it with everything I've got.

"And to show Congress just how serious I am, on the first day of my administration, I will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless we have passed universal health care reform.

"There are four principles that have to be met: it must be truly universal. Anyone who has health care must be able to keep it, but they should pay less for it. Anyone who doesn't have health care must get it, with help if they can't afford it. Doctors and patients, not insurance companies and HMOs, must have control of health care decisions.

"The American people have waited long enough. Six months will be hard, but we can do it. Six months to universal health care. Six months to real change. Without compromise.

"Millions of Americans live without health care every day. It's time for Washington to understand that health care reform isn't a political issue - it's a moral issue. If they do, we'll finally have universal health care."