By Robert Laszewski

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has very little
on her health care policy resume from her short time in office as
Alaska’s Governor but what she does have fits right in with Senator
McCain’s strategy to use the market more effectively in bringing down
America’s health care costs and improving access to the system.

Her health care efforts have focused on two things in Alaska:

• Eliminating the 1970s era strategy of requiring providers to
  file Certificate of Need (CON) applications before being able to build
  more health care facilities.

• Providing consumers with more information.

Continue reading "Sarah Palin’s limited health care record staunchly free market."

Where does Sarah Palin stand on children’s health coverage?

By Jocelyn Guyer

The entire country now has heard about how Sarah Palin and her
husband knew in advance that their son, Trig Palin, would be born with
Down Syndrome. The Palins also must have known that they would have
health insurance and the financial resources needed to pay for the
extensive medical care Trig is likely to need throughout his life.

Here is 3-year old Emily Demko, another child with Down Syndrome, who lives with her
family in Ohio. The family has given permission to share this photo of their beautiful daughter and the story (details here) of their trials securing health coverage for Emily. As of this spring, Emily was uninsured. Due to her Down Syndrome,
the family could not find a private insurer willing to offer them
affordable coverage for Emily. If the Bush Administration had not shut
down Ohio’s efforts to expand its State Children’s Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP), Emily would have been able to continue to secure
decent, affordable public coverage. But the Bush Administration in
August of 2007 issued a controversial ban on coverage of children in moderate-income families and twice vetoed bills to reauthorize and expand the SCHIP program.

Continue reading "Where does Sarah Palin stand on children’s health coverage?

Emily’s mom responds to comments

I would like to introduce myself as the mother of the child portrayed in the story above. I can assure you, it is NOT a B.S. story, and our income is several thousand less than $75k per year. As a matter of fact, we were less than $200 away from Medicaid eligability! I live in southeast Ohio, where the median income is less than $42K per year. Also, my daughter has no option of private health care, since she has a genetic condition. The group plan I was part of when she was born did not want to continue full coverage on her because the medical bills were so extensive. we ARE a working class income family, we both work hard to provide, yet we have NO ACCESS to health care for our daughter. Her medical bills would astound you, sir. I pay what I can every month, and pray that I can continue giving her the best medical care I can. I am sure that Gov Palin will never see a $100 bill for 20 min of speech therapy, or a $22,000 bill for a 6 day hospital stay. Neither will her grandchild. They will always be covered, and we as taxpayers would foot that bill if she were to be elected. How is that not an upeer middle class person bilking the federal government?