OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. supports universal health care!

[Clark2008]

Access to healthcare for all. No Tennessean – rich or poor, young or old – should be without healthcare. And no business should be bankrupted for taking care of its employees. When you buy a house, you are required to get homeowner’s insurance. When you own a car, you are required to get car insurance. It is time to apply the same rationale to health insurance. Instead of the current system – where the insured are paying for themselves and the uninsured – we need to move to a system where adults accept responsibility to obtain coverage for themselves and their children. In short, it is time to give universal healthcare coverage, but only if people are willing to accept universal responsibility.

http://fordfortennessee.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. supports public education!

http://fordfortennessee.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

OMG! Harold Ford Jr. supports alternative fuel and energy conservation!

http://fordfortennessee.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

OMG! Harold Ford Jr. supports workers!

http://fordfortennessee.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

Sorry - I'm so fucking tired of all the "Harold Ford Jr. supports insert perceived Republican talking point here." that I had to point out some of Harold's liberal positions because he HAS more of them than not.

[anniebelle]

1. Yes, I live in Tennessee, so no local news for me, please.

C-Span just did a piece on the Ford/Corker race, and talked about that disgusting new ad the RNC is running insinuating that Harold Ford is connected with porn and white girls. OMG.

[OzarkDem]

2. Re health care - devil is in the details

No offense to Harold Ford, but Ken Blackwell supports "universal" health care too.

Many of the GOP'ers who tout this issue tend to support programs that require people to purchase health insurance, with no guarantee that the insurance they're forced to purchase will be 1. affordable or 2. cover their health care expenses. Most of the plans these GOP folk are touting don't have ERISA protections and will end up being just another consumer ripoff.

[Clark2008]

5. I'm guessing you didn't read the link.

Of course, forcing people to buy health insurance makes no sense unless we make it affordable. With increased personal responsibility to ensure that everyone obtains coverage comes shared responsibility to ensure that everyone can afford coverage. Our plan features a multi-tiered strategy to lower costs for the three basic groups of uninsured who need our help:


• Those who are eligible for Medicaid but don’t sign up. We should set up low-cost portals at hospitals and health centers to register them and begin addressing their needs. When someone eligible for Medicaid comes in for treatment, they will automatically be registered.


• Those who can afford coverage but decline it. Usually, these people decline coverage because they are in good health and consider coverage too costly. But this means when they get sick, the public safety net picks up the tab for them. This cycle should be stopped. Insurers claim they can provide insurance plans at less than half the rate of today’s standard $500 a month for an individual. The federal government should work with insurance companies to design high-deductible, low-premium plans to serve these people. States like Massachusetts and New York are already doing this. We need to take this successful program to the national level so the people of Tennessee can benefit as well.


• Finally, those who cannot afford health insurance but who do not qualify for Medicaid, either. These people deserve a system with sliding scale subsidies to provide affordable coverage with smaller subsidies as incomes rise. For people making three times the poverty line (individuals earning more than $30,000 and families of four earning more than $54,000), the subsidies would phase out.

No - it's not Canadian, but it's a step in the right direction - and certainly better than the crap we have now. We would have to overcome the media-driven belief of most Americans that universal health care is "socialist" to provide a system like Canada or Great Britain - and this plan overcomes that by involving the individual, businesses and government.

He also talks of reducing health care costs by allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies in other countries (Canada) and by using technology (a Wesley Clark plan - and Wes, I think, has proven to anyone who doesn't kneejerk "hate the military," that he's a liberal).

[OzarkDem]

8. "Insurance - lite" is not a solution

- "Those who can afford coverage but decline it. Usually, these people decline coverage because they are in good health and consider coverage too costly. But this means when they get sick, the public safety net picks up the tab for them. This cycle should be stopped. Insurers claim they can provide insurance plans at less than half the rate of today’s standard $500 a month for an individual. The federal government should work with insurance companies to design high-deductible, low-premium plans to serve these people. States like Massachusetts and New York are already doing this. We need to take this successful program to the national level so the people of Tennessee can benefit as well."

Those are GOP talking points, sad to say. Most individual insurance plans (like those touted in Mass.) are nearly worthless. Most of those programs are very, very vulnerable to being undercut when someone actually becomes sick. Most of these so -called health care policies (which patients pay dearly for) don't cover prescription drugs, routine health screenings, or important items like chemotherapy for cancer patients. Those may seem trivial to you and Harold Ford, but believe me, they are not trivial to most Americans.

Any politician who is deluded enough to think that a private insurance company will provide quality, affordable, comprehensive health care coverage is fooling themselves. They can't and they won't.

Now if Harold is willing to include a guarantee in his plan that provides for affordable private insurance with full ERISA protection, then we can talk.

[BootinUp]

11. So the Massachusetts plan is a GOP plan? n/t

[SouthernBelle82]

3. In my opinion

as a Tennesseean voter I don't think these position's are liberal or conservative. They're more about just caring for people and doing the job that the government should do. Ford just knows that. He did vote against NAFTA so it's not that surprising. I think he has adopted Kerry's health care plan last time I checked. Ford is still pretty conservative for a democrat. There's a lot I disagree with him about but I'm still voting for him for three reason's 1) I know he cares more about this race than Corker (or as some are calling him now Porker) 2) He will just do a better job at being a Senator. He's had more experience with this type of job from being a Congressman and he does listen to people (see why he voted against NAFTA) 3) To get the democrats control over the Senate. Ford has also signed onto John Conyers's petition on the Downing Street Minutes memo's and was with the first petition and signed on right away so that showed me he's serious about Iraq. I don't agree with his stance on Iraq but at least he has a plan and he is using a historical context to show people as well and he's not for "Staying the course" like Corker who is now desperatley trying to run away from that even though Ford isn't letting him.

[Clark2008]

4. Agreed - but we know living in Tennessee that Ford is tons

better than Corker!

Good post!

[OzarkDem]

10. Welcome to DU!

[BootinUp]

12. voted against NAFTA?

He wasn't a congressman until 1996.


on edit:
Maybe you mean his father, Harold Ford Sr., but actually he voted for it.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1993/roll575.xml

[SouthernBelle82]

15. Perhaps it's CAFTA I'm thinking of

I know it's one of those this time around Nancy Pelosi almost got defeated in the House except a good number of democrats voted with the republicans on it. I remember that because Nancy was really pissed off. Oh and thanks for the welcome to DU. I used to be a member a long time ago so it's cool to be back.

[leesa]

6. Universal healthcare coverage? Big deal. So people are forced to carry

insurance they probably can't afford or to take cheaper plans that won't cover squat. We've experienced that with car insurance. It's a gift to the insurance industry and nothing more. Typical DLC crap.

[Totally Committed]

7. Just in case anyone is in danger of confusing him with Ted Kennedy:

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. voted to outlaw gay marriage!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. voted to repeal the estate tax!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. wants to amend the Constitution to ban flag burning!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. supports getting rid of the handgun ban in the nation's capital!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. says the Ten Commandments should be posted in courtrooms around his state!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. favors school prayer!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. argues that more troops should have been sent to Iraq!

OMG!! Harold Ford Jr. wants to seal the border with Mexico!

As detailed in the Newsweek Article, "Not Your Daddy'd Democrats". Entire Article:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Just keeping it real. He's better than the Republican he's running against. At least a vote for him will help the balance of power in the Senate. But, he's no Liberal. He's not even a centrist... he's a conservative. That's the truth of it.

TC

[OzarkDem]

9. That's why he's not winning

Given a choice between a real Republican and a pretend one, voters will choose the real one every time.

Voters are looking for change, the're tired of the GOP. Any candidate who is running next to his GOP opponent this year is going to lose. They're not offering voters a choice when they want one.

[Jai4WKC08]

13. "Not winning"? He's sure as hell not losing

The latest polling:

Rasmussen 10/10
Ford 48
Corker 46

SurveyUSA 10/7-10/9
Ford 46
Corker 48

Hamilton Beattie 10/2-10/4
Ford 51
Corker 44

USA Today/Gallup 9/27-10/1
Ford 50
Corker 45

I think for a black Democrat running in a red state, Ford's doing pretty damn good. Maybe not good enough to get past Diebold, or the fundamentalist preachers who tell their congregants they'll burn in Hell if they don't vote Republican. But I don't think there's much doubt he'd win a fair election, if such a thing were possible.

It's kind of silly to brand Harold Ford a conservative by comparing him to Ted Kennedy.

[BootinUp]

14. pollsters keep talking about a hidden

anti black vote that may raise its ugly head at the voting booth. I guess I am not as confident about this race and the one in Virginia as I am about Missou.

[SouthernBelle82]

17. Well not only that

but isn't Ford half white too?

[BootinUp]

18. I am not sure

I have never seen a picture of his family, but I am also not sure whether that changes the red neck vote much.

[SouthernBelle82]

16. Oh most certainly

As I said he's more conservative than what I'd like but looking at him and Corker Ford is the better choice and it's important we have people who listen again and that the democrats take back the Senate as well as the House.