Mike Huckabee on Health Care, USA Today
Mike Huckabee's Health Care Plan, Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
Reforming Health Care, goHealth Insurance
Showing posts with label Huckabee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huckabee. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26
Mike Huckabee Health Care Plan
Huckabee approaches health care in a similar fashion to McCain. He believes that universal health care is not the answer but rather a system that is focused on containing costs and putting a priority on preventative care. This will give Americans more control of their health care options and make health care competitive in a global economy.
"It is time to recognize that jobs don't need health care, people do, and move from employer-based to consumer-based health care."
Huckabee is passionate that the health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a "health care" system, not a "health" system. He asserts that is we need to get serious about preventive health care, instead of chasing more and more dollars to treat chronic disease, which currently gobbles up 80% of our health care costs, and yet is often avoidable.
Huckabee also advocates policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs and improve the free market for health care services. He wants to change a system that happily pays $30,000 for a diabetic to have his foot amputated, but won't pay for the shoes that would save his foot.
Huckabee's strategies to make health care more affordable include:
- reforming medical liability
- adopting electronic record keeping
- making health insurance more portable from one job to another
- expanding health savings accounts to everyone, not just those with high deductibles
- making health insurance tax deductible for individuals and families as it now is for businesses. Low income families would get tax credits instead of deductions.
Health care spending is now about $2 trillion a year, which is close to $7,000 for each American. It consumes about 17% of our gross domestic product, easily surpassing the few European nations where spending is close to 10% and far higher than any other country in the world. According to Huckabee, if we reduced our out-of-control health care costs from 17% to 11%, we'd save $700 billion a year, which is about twice our annual national deficit.
Huckabee also points out that our health care system is making our businesses non-competitive in the global economy. How?
- General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel, $1,500 per car.
- Starbucks spends more on health care than it does on coffee beans.
We have an employer-based system from the 1940's, a system devised not because it was the best way to provide health care, but as a way around World War II wage-and-price controls. Costs have skyrocketed because the party paying for the health care---the employer---and the party using the health care---the employee---are not the same. It is human nature to consume more of something that is essentially free.
Workers complain that their wages are stagnant, but businesses reply that their total compensation costs are rising significantly because they are paying so much more for health care. Huckabee sees that health care costs are adversely affecting your paycheck, even if you're healthy. Some Americans are afraid to change jobs or start their own businesses because they're afraid of losing their health insurance.
Huckabee says it is time to recognize that jobs don't need health insurance, people do, and to ease the burden on businesses. The employer-based system has outlived its usefulness, but Huckabee's answer is a true consumer-based system, not socialized medicine.
Wednesday, February 6
Super Tuesday Results
Democrats - 2,025 delegates needed to win nomination
Clinton: 783 (AS, AZ, AR, CA, MA, NJ, NY, OK, TN)
Obama: 709 (AL, AK, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, KS, MN, ND, UT)
Republicans - 1191 delegates needed to win nomination
McClain: 559 (AZ, CT, DE, IL, OK, NJ, NY, MO, CA)
Romney: 265 (AZ, MA, MN, ND, UT, MT, CO)
Huckabee: 169 (AL, AR, GA, WV, TN)
Honestly, I am a little baffled by the results. Here are some of my observations from the night:
1. Why is Huckabee going after Romney and not McCain? You would think that Huckabee is more closely aligned with Romney on issues than McCain and would at least fight McCain on principle as well as the fact that McCain is the front runner. That leads me to conclude 1) Huckabee is really not as conservative as he would like us to believe or 2) Huckabee and McCain are striking some type of deal where Huckabee will be the V.P. candidate.
2. Michele McGinty over at Reformed Chicks Babbling perfectly summed up my next observation,
"Turn out has been much greater for the Democrats than for the Republicans. I don't think we're that happy with our choice. None of these candidates are fully conservative and each appeal only to a segment of the base. None of them will be able to make the party coalesce around them in the fall. If the base does coalesce, it will be for other reasons (to beat Hillary, the war, etc.), not because we want any of these guys as our president."
3. I read that 70% of Democrats would be happy with either Clinton or Obama as their nominee. So that makes the next question which one of them would be more likely to defeat the Repulican ticket?
4. Or, is the real question who is America ready to have as President---a woman or an African-American? That question gets a little more complicated when you take into account these facts from John Judis at The New Republic:
- Clinton lost among blacks, but she should be able to win back those voters in November.
- In California, Clinton lost white men by a whopping 52 to 34 percent.
- She lost white independents by 58 to 30 percent.
- In California, 6.5 percent of those voters who didn’t vote for Clinton said that gender of the candidate was “an important factor.” One must assume that the actual percentage is higher (voters don’t like to admit to prejudice) and that any of those voters who would not want to vote for a woman, but who potentially could vote for a Democrat, did not vote at all in the primaries, but will be around in the general election.
and
- Obama had trouble with white working-class voters. In New Jersey, which a Democrat pretty much will have to win in November, Obama won only 31 percent of the white vote.
- Over 11 percent of those who voted against Obama (a group that might also include some Latinos) said that race was an important factor in their vote.
- Here, too, one must assume that the actual percentage is higher and that it would be even higher among voters in a general election.
- Democrats can win a state like Connecticut without winning these voters, but it won’t win most of the big Middle Atlantic and Midwestern states without them.
These races are far from over and it looks like states with late primaries may actually decide the nominees. I even saw one pundit suggest that the Democratic nominee won't be selected until the convention in August when the more than 800 super delegates get to vote.
Despite what side of the fence you sit on, it looks like we have a horse race!
Monday, January 28
Just the Facts: Huckabee Education Plan
Mike Huckabee's education platform is different from most of the other candidates in that he doesn't list what he'd do as president, he lists what he implemented in Arkansas as governor and how that worked. In debates and media reports, he cites a recent study produced and published by Education Week, that claims Arkansas is ranked eighth in the nation for overall quality of education, a significant jump after being near the bottom for many years. However, others dispute that claim and say the numbers don't add up and that education in Arkansas is still lacking.
So let me lay out the facts and you can decide for yourself. According to Huckabee's campaign web site, these are his foundational tenets for his education platform:
I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to become skilled and professional workers.
Music and the arts are not extraneous, extra-curricular, or expendable. They create a competitive and creative work force. I proposed legislation to provide music and art instruction by certified teachers for all Arkansas children in grades one through six, forty minutes a week. These programs have a powerful effect in leveling the academic playing field for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The study of music improves math scores, spatial reasoning and abstract thinking.
I have been a strong, consistent supporter of the rights of parents to home school their children, of creating more charter schools, and of public school choice.
We need a clear distinction between federal and state roles in education. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmark.
I created intensive reading and math programs that went back to basics that resulted in our test scores rising dramatically. I then created one of the most demanding high school curricula in the country, and the number of students taking advanced placement classes grew by leaps and bounds.
I opposed the teachers' union and got the Fair Dismissal Law passed, which allowed us to terminate poorly performing teachers.
I raised teachers' salaries from among the lowest in the nation to among the most competitive.
I created systems to make our schools accountable to both parents and taxpayers by insisting on transparency in how money is spent, efficiency in putting money into classroom programs rather than administrative costs, and clear responsibility of all employees for the tasks assigned to them.
I fought hard for more charter schools, with their strong parental involvement and their unique ability to serve as laboratories for education reform, and for the rights of parents to home school their children. I am a strong supporter of public school choice.
We need to test teachers as well as students, replace teachers who aren't competent, and impose reasonable waiting periods for teachers to gain tenure.
We should provide bonuses and forgive student loans for high-performing teachers to work in low-performing schools.
Just as there are executives in the corporate world who specialize in turning around failing companies, we need teachers who are "turn-around specialists" for failing schools.
Educators and teachers should be involved in the design of compensation initiatives that encourage training and promote performance based on merit, so that our children can have the best education in the world.
As President, my education agenda will include working towards a clear distinction between the federal role in assisting and empowering states and in usurping the right of states to carry out the education programs for their students. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high national standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
So let me lay out the facts and you can decide for yourself. According to Huckabee's campaign web site, these are his foundational tenets for his education platform:
As President, my education agenda will include working towards a clear distinction between the federal role in assisting and empowering states and in usurping the right of states to carry out the education programs for their students. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high national standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
Extra Credit: Huckabee & Education
Mike Huckabee & Education, On the Issues
Huckabee and Education, CNSNews.com
Secret Huckabee Turns Out To Be Clintonesque, The New York Sun
Mike Huckabee and Arts Education: A blog dedicated to showcasing Mike Huckabee's long standing commitment to arts education.
Huckabee and Education, CNSNews.com
Secret Huckabee Turns Out To Be Clintonesque, The New York Sun
Mike Huckabee and Arts Education: A blog dedicated to showcasing Mike Huckabee's long standing commitment to arts education.
Wednesday, January 23
Duncan Hunter Throws His Support Behind Huckabee
California Rep. Duncan Hunter withdrew from the Presidential race after last week's South Carolina primary. Today he threw his support behind Mike Huckabee.
You can read the entire story at Fox News.
“Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of America’s industrial base,” Hunter said in a statement.
You can read the entire story at Fox News.
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