John Edwards jumped ahead of the other designated major candidates in proposing a detailed plan to get to universal coverage. (Representative Dennis Kucinich has put forward a universal Medicare plan, but the media have largely opted to ignore his candidacy.) This is a serious plan. What I find most interesting (agreeing with Paul Krugman) is the proposal to create a public Medicare type system that any individual or employer can buy into. [Cheap political advice for the Edwards campaign: hype this item to the moon as a small business friendly proposal. Small businesses hate to deal with insurers who can raise their premiums by ridiculous amounts, especially if one of their workers develops a serious illness.] This sets up a head to head competition between the public system and private insurers. We should all benefit from this sort of competition. Thus far the media has barely reported at all on any of the substance of this campaign. There is still a long way to go before anyone casts a vote, but it's never too early to start talking about substance. I know almost nothing about what any of the presidential candidates in 2004 had to say about health care. Maybe that's because most of them didn't say anything. But this time, we already have one very substantive proposal on the table. It deserves the media's attention, as do the responses of the other candidates.
--Dean Baker
