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Where the candidates stand on health care | |||||||
| President George Bush, Republican | Sen. John Kerry, Democrat | Don Barbieri, Democrat, for U.S. House, 5th District | Cathy McMorris, Republican, for U.S. House, 5th District | Sen. Patty Murray, Democrat for Senate | Rep. George Nethercutt, Republican for Senate | Christine Gregoire, Democrat for governor | Dino Rossi, Republican for governor |
| Supports expanded health savings accounts with greater tax credits for low-income families, expanded community health centers, discounts for drug purchases for seniors, buying pools and other tax credits to offer coverage to employees of small businesses, medical liability reform and allowing consumers to buy insurance from other states. | Give small businesses tax credits to cover half of premiums for poorer workers, allow individuals to buy into Congressional Health Plan. Create federal pool to cover catastrophic costs. Federal government should negotiate lower drug prices, bring generic drugs to market faster, allow importation of U.S.-approved drugs from Canada. Lift ban on stem cell research. | Insuring more people is a top priority. My plan includes help covering 22,000 children in Eastern Washington without insurance, and helping small business afford employee coverage. Reform should include allowing drug importation and other ways of lowering prescription drug costs. Bring more competition to the insurance market. | We must bring down health care and insurance costs without resorting to government-run health care. I support lawsuit reform, allowing small businesses to create pools that can better negotiate lower health insurance rates, and the importation of prescription drugs from Canada if the FDA certifies them as safe. | Provide tax credits to doctors in high-risk specialties, cut down on frivolous lawsuits, and underwrite the cost of malpractice insurance for doctors. Create better tax breaks to encourage companies to offer health savings account. | Supported efforts to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and create Health Savings Accounts. To improve patients’ access to care, especially mothers and babies, I will work to reform the medical malpractice system. | Make insurance affordable for small businesses by offering “pooled” purchasing so they can provide health care coverage for employees. Washington should make the purchase of prescription drugs more affordable by joining with five other states who have begun pooling the purchase of pharmaceuticals. We should continue to use the tobacco settlement money to support the state’s Basic Health Plan. | Other states have put limits on medical lawsuits and lawyers’ fees, and Washington should as well. Supports caps on non-economic damages and caps on lawyers’ fees. The state must be much more vigilant in stopping fraud and abuse in the Basic Health Plan. State government has loaded our health care system with regulations. We should re-assess all these mandates. |