April 28, 2008 9:37 AM
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McCain Calls Gov't-Run Health Care "Wrong Way to Go"
(CBS)
John McCain talks health care reform his week, kicking off what he's dubbing a "Call to Action Tour"
Today in Florida, McCain will talk about his proposals to solve problems with the health care system saying the solution to affordable and accessible health care is not through government-run programs but through individual choice, saying that government-run health care is "the wrong way to go".
"We must reform the health care system to make it responsive to the needs of American families. Not the government. Not the insurance companies. Not tort lawyers. Not even the doctors and hospitals," McCain will say at Childrens Hospital in Miami, according to his prepared remarks.
McCain proposes Americans should be given $5,000 per family to choose their own health plan that isn't necessarily tied to their job. His plan also calls for reform in medical malpractice, insurance and the influence of pharmaceutical drug companies.
"Doctors must do a better job of managing our care and keeping us healthy and out of hospitals and nursing homes. We will need alternatives to doctors' offices and emergency rooms. Hospitals must do a better job of taking care of us when we are there, commit fewer deadly and costly medical errors and generally operate more efficiently. Pharmaceutical companies must worry less about squeezing additional profits from old medicines by copying the last successful drug and insisting on additional patent protections and focus more on new and innovative medicine. Insurance companies should spend more on medical care and less on "administration," he'll say.
"We can build a health care system that is more responsive to our needs and is delivered to more people at lower cost. The 'solution,' my friends, isn't a one-size-fits-all-big government takeover of health care. It resides where every important social advance has always resided - with the American people themselves, with well informed American families, making practical decisions to address their imperatives for better health and more secure prosperity."
"Any 'solution' that robs us of that essential sense of ourselves is a cure far worse than the affliction it is meant to treat."
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