Whose Plan Is Healthier?

摘要

Pop quiz: on what issue do President Bush and Senator John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), his likely Democratic challenger, differ most sharply? Nope, it's not Iraq. And it isn't even the economy. The real contrast between them: health care. The two candidates offer voters a stark choice. Kerry would spend more than $900 billion over the next decade to shore up the current health insurance system (table). Nearly all Americans, including most of the 44 million who are uninsured, would get coverage either through their job or through government programs. Says Emory University health economist Kenneth E. Thorpe: "Kerry takes the ex-, isting structure and builds on it."