Elizabeth Edwards continues to smack down McCain’s plan for the "healthy and wealthy" emphasizing the fundamental flaw of the individual market, the centerpiece of McCain’s plan.
"McCain’s never been in the individual market, he doesn’t know how difficult it is, in fact, how impossible it is, if you happen to be one of the unlucky Americans who have a pre-existing condition," Elizabeth stated on MSNBC today.
Watch it here:
In a post today at the Wonk Room, Elizabeth expounds on the "Inequities of the Individual Market" :
Senator John McCain’s health plan is based on the idea that everyone should be on their own to buy their health insurance on the individual market. And it’s an approach fundamentally at odds with the point of health insurance: that we share risks. People with preexisting conditions, like McCain and myself, would pay much more for health insurance under his health plan, if we could get coverage at all.
Elizabeth further emphasizes the disparities women face with regard to obtaining affordable healthcare:
Insurance companies have all sorts of characteristics they look at in order to increase premiums, such as preexisting conditions, occupation, age, and residence. But I hadn’t realized that the McCain plan would enable insurers to "rate-up" my insurance bill for not only my status as a breast cancer patient, but also my gender.
Teaming up with MoveOn and Emily’s list to help elect more women to Congress and ensure universal healthcare is achieved, an issue of ‘particular concern to mothers,' Elizabeth wrote in an email today:
Health care is an issue that is really close to my heart. And I know it matters to a lot of Americans, particularly mothers. But time and again, Republicans have blocked progress on expanding health care—most recently the expansion of the children's health insurance program—and on so many other important issues.
That's why we need to elect more progressive women in Congress in 2008, to stand with President Obama on healthcare and other key issues.
MoveOn is working with EMILY's List to highlight some great candidates like Kay Hagan, a legislator in my home state of North Carolina who is running for U.S. Senate. It is a race that the pundits and politicos had previously ignored, but no longer: Last week the Washington Post rated it as one of the most winnable Senate races for Democrats in the country.1
Obama too, who is working with Elizabeth on healthcare, is speaking out this week on inequities women face and how McCain has it wrong. Yesterday, appearing before a group of working women in New Mexico, he stated:
"John McCain just has it wrong. He said the Fair Pay Restoration Act 'opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems.' But I can't think of any problem more important than making sure that women get equal pay for equal work. It's a matter of equality."
Obama: McCain Wont Stand Up for Equal Pay for Women
By contrast, McCain not only wants to create a system of healthcare that will magnify the inequities for women, but he also opposes the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Elizabeth and Obama are right, McCain has it wrong on Health Care and wrong on equal pay.
For women voters, I think our choice is clear.