JOHN KERRY Health Care
Kerry's health care plan aims to cover 27 million of the 41 million uninsured Americans through a patchwork of programs that would cost $890 billion over ten years. He'll expand the Children's Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid to cover all children from families living at three times the poverty line or less and all parents at two times or less. All Americans could buy into the insurance plan that covers federal employees. He also wants to encourage businesses to cover workers through a variety of tax credits and incentives. He supports a generous Medicare prescription drug benefit and hopes to lower drug costs by eliminating regulatory loopholes for pharmaceutical companies. Kerry is for lowering malpractice insurance costs by making it harder to file frivolous lawsuits and limiting the cases where punitive damages can be awarded, but he opposes capping damages.