Let's talk about healthcare.
This is a good place to do it because Washington State was the home of Scoop Jackson and Warren Magnuson, both of whom never wavered in their support of universal health care. It is also a good place to talk about healthcare because of this state's pioneering efforts through community based cooperativeslike this oneto provide the full range of health care; of public and preventable disease protection, for people without the means to afford to them.
I believe in universal access, just the way the Democratic Party has believed in it and fought for it 50 yearsjust the way the Washington State Democratic Party fought for legislation that recognized health care as a basic American birthright. I am the only Democrat in the race to propose universal access and insure all kids. My plan helps working families by giving them a $25 billion tax cut to help pay for health insurance. The vast majority of the 44 million people without health insurance are working people. People with the constant worry of a devastating illness that will impoverish them.
For six months, Al Gore has been criticizing my health care plan. He says it's too expensive, too ambitious, basically too big. Today, I want to take a look at his health care plan.
Now, he does have a health care proposal; a very modest proposal.. That's how the Urban Institute described it, saying "all his measures, taken together, would expand coverage only modestly."
That's not good enough.
Mine is comprehensive. The non-partisan Consumers Union, the people who publish Consumer Reports, rated my health plan superior to his on seven of eight counts.
He criticizes me for proposes a way to fix Medicaid and replace it with something better, yet he does nothing to give insurance to working adults without children who do not qualify for Medicaid. Only my plan gives them access to quality affordable care.
His proposal covers only seven million peoplewhich he calls "a first step," but unfortunately, it is the only step.
Some months ago, in pointing to the holes in the Vice President's plan, I asked him, "Who was he leaving out?" He never answered the question. But I can answer it for him.
Here in Washington state there are 560,000 adults who are without health insurance who my plan would cover and his would not. That's who he's leaving out.
He leaves out people who work hard but don't have benefits supplied by their employers.
He leaves out people who want to change jobs but are stuck because they'll lose their insurance.
He leaves out uninsured adults who don't have children.
His proposal leaves in place a Medicaid program that reaches less than half the poor, and segregates the rest so they have enormous obstacles to finding a health care provider.
He proposes a completely inadequate 25 percent tax credit for middle income families, and then attacks me for being willing to pay for a comprehensive solution.
It's hard to know exactly what his Medicare prescription drug benefit does because he "forgets" to tell you important details. In New Hampshire this January, he went to the Heritage House and promised the seniors there that he would take care of all their prescription drug needs. He "forgot" to tell them his benefit has a cap at $1000. Now yesterday in Ohio, talking about his new catastrophic benefit that is based on my plan, he told seniors he would cover their catastrophic drug needs, but he "forgot" to tell them that under his proposal, he won't provide catastrophic coverage until 2006.
And his plan to provide access for children through expansion of the CHIP program by 2005 will mean nothingabsolutely nothing here in Washington State where children up to 250 percent of poverty are already covered. But the problem with his plan is illustrated well here in Washington Statea state with a commitment to health coverage, due to leaders like Jim McDermott. It wasn't until last week that the state actually launched its version of the CHIP program. There are 97,000 uninsured children in this state, which has one of the most comprehensive programs in the country.
Al Gore's proposal is basically this: If you're a child, don't get sick for five years, until you might have coverage. If you're a senior, wait six years to need prescription drug benefits that aren't capped at $1,000. And if you're an uninsured adultdon't get your hopes up.
Al Gore's proposal is the weakest proposal for health care coverage put forth by a Democrat running for the Presidency that I can remember.
That's the difference between us. I don't think we should leave anyone behind. Universal health care is what I believe in, it's what I've always fought for, it's what I'll do as President.
This is a campaign for all Americans, but especially for the 44 million who don't have health care because they can't afford it. The vast majority of them are hard working people. They don't meet a narrow eligibility for Medicaid, and Al Gore's plan does nothing for them. Nothing. But they sacrifice and live with the constant worry of a devastating illness that could strike them or a member of their family and instantly impoverish them.
Here in the richest nation in the history of the world, in a country looking at unprecedented budget surpluses, these hard working Americans have to find their health care in the most expensive and inefficient ways possible, at the latest stages of their disease. Then, if they are lucky enough to find a doctor and a hospital to treat them, the rest of us pay through cost shifting.
That's not rightnot in America, not in this time of prosperity.
What is most disturbing about this is that it is the Democratic party which has the responsibility of leadership for the hard working people of this country.
It is a Democratic Vice Presidentand candidate for President who abandoned the field after the Republicans defeated the Clinton-Gore health plan. True, the plan was politically flawed, but that was no reason to give upto quit the fight. That was no reason to leave millions of Americans stranded without health coverage. That is the truth, and that is what happened.
Now the Vice President claims I am denigrating the Democratic party when I point to this recorda record of seven years of prosperity, and seven million more uninsured Americans than when we had a Republican President.
To the contrary, a good Democrata Democrat who is committed to the fundamental principles of our partyhas the responsibility to lead on this issue.
That is not only true of health care, but education, gun control, choice, campaign finance reform, and the environment. I'm the only person in this race, on either side, who has consistently fought for all these things.
I want to create a new politics of trust. You've got to trust the people enough to tell them the truth. The American people deserve a President who'll tell them the truth. People so hunger for the truth these days they are willing to vote for someone like John McCain because they believe he is honest, even though they disagree with him. He doesn't even have a health care plan.
But you can get honesty and campaign finance reform, plus choice, gun control, a qualified teacher in every classroom and a good custodian of the environment by voting for me.
It will take strength to do the things I've talked about. Strength is about more than pounding the podium; it's about consistency over time and acting on your beliefs. That's what I've always done, and it's what I'll do as President.
I look to the voters of this state, who have so often in the past shown a beacon of social justice to America, to join me in sending a message to America that the Democratic Party is ready to lead again.
Join our campaign to bring the simple human dignity of health protection to all our citizens.
Join our campaign to lift children out of poverty, to protect a woman's right to choose, to get guns out of neighborhoods and way from our children, and to get the special interest money out of politics.
Join with me, and make us proud to be Democrats.