Edwards stands up to Insurance Companies

Hmm I saw some people stating that Edwards has not unveiled any new plans this week other than the Hunting/Fishing one. I think he heard you.

Instead of defending lobbyists and corrupt insiders, Edwards will stand up for regular Americans as part of seven-day "Stand Strong" campaign

Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Today, as Senator John Edwards traveled across rural Iowa, he kicked-off a seven-day "Stand Strong" campaign by outlining proposals to protect health care for rural seniors by standing up to big insurance companies that are overcharging taxpayers, reducing rural health care choices and scamming seniors. Edwards grew up in small, rural towns and is running for president to represent hard-working families, like the ones he grew up with.

Edwards discussed how Medicare Advantage - expanded by the law that created the privatized prescription drug benefit - provides huge subsidies to insurance companies to offer private-fee-for-service coverage for seniors. He explained how the program wreaks havoc on rural health care by overpaying private HMOs, destabilizing rural health care providers, reducing choice for rural Americans, and encouraging questionable marketing and insurance tactics.

Taking on Big Insurance Companies that Hurt Rural Seniors

Misguided Medicare giveaways to private insurance companies are jeopardizing health care for rural older Americans. The Medicare Advantage program - expanded by the law that created the privatized prescription drug benefit - provides huge subsidies to insurance companies to offer private-fee-for-service coverage for seniors. And while the private insurance companies collect billions from taxpayers, they are also squeezing the already-stretched provider network in rural America. The program has been almost designed to wreak havoc - in the form of waste, fraud and abuse - on rural health care.

   * Waste: Sending Billions from Taxpayers to HMOs: The government pays Medicare Advantage private plans an average of 12 percent more (and up to 19 percent more for the fee-for-service plans that predominate in rural areas) than it does for the same services in traditional Medicare. In Iowa, the average overpayment is 24 percent. Nationally, these overpayments total more than $10 billion annually. [CBPP, 2007; CBO, 2007]

   * Fraud: Questionable Marketing and Insurance Tactics: A review of 91 government audits found that tens of thousands of seniors have been victimized by scam sales tactics or cheated out of benefits by the private insurance companies that operate Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug insurance. One insurance agent scam tricked beneficiaries into signing up for private plans by telling them Medicare was going out of business. Another agent sold a plan to an Iowa senior even though it had no providers in the senior's vicinity. [NY Times, 10/6/07; ACJF, 2007; Iowa Insurance Div., 2007]

  * Abuse: Squeezing Rural Health Care Providers and Reducing Choice: Reimbursement rates paid by private plans are sometimes lower (even though insurance profits are higher) than they were in traditional Medicare. By giving private insurers greater bargaining power with rural doctors and hospitals, the Medicare Advantage program has upset an already fragile health care environment and threatens the survival of some providers. In addition, some providers are declining to accept Medicare Advantage coverage. This, combined with the decline in rural providers, means fewer health care options in rural areas. [NACRHS, 2007; KFF, 2007]

The Edwards Plan to Protect Rural Health Care for Seniors

Building on his plan for true universal health care, John Edwards will stand up to the big insurance companies that are ripping off taxpayers, reducing rural health care choices and ripping off seniors.

   * Stop the Overpayments: Edwards will end overpayments to Medicare Advantage private insurers by paying rates for the private plans that are similar to traditional Medicare's costs.

* Invest Savings in Strengthening Medicare: Edwards will use savings from eliminating overpayments in part to make sure that low-income Medicare beneficiaries have access to the care they need and address funding and reimbursement formulas that are unfair to rural areas.

* Crack Down on Marketing Abuses: Edwards will empower state and federal regulators to set standards for insurance agents' conduct and enforce them, ending rules that tie officials' hands.

It seems like everytime Edwards does a new tour, he unveils a new plan. He even manages to do it without any song and dance routine, just him, the people of the country who need help and that's it.

Re: Iran and Clinton:

Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Today, Senator John Edwards released the following statement condemning the Bush Administration's approach towards Iran and criticizing Senator Clinton for undermining the American people's opposition to the war:

"Today, George Bush and Dick Cheney again rattled the sabers in their march toward military action against Iran. The Bush Administration has been making plans to attack Iran for many months. At this critical moment, we need strong leadership to stand against George Bush's dangerous `preventive war' policy, which makes force the first option, not the last.

"I learned a clear lesson from the lead up to the Iraq War in 2002: if you give this president an inch, he will take a mile - and launch a war. Senator Clinton apparently learned a different lesson. Instead of blocking George Bush's new march to war, Senator Clinton and others are enabling him once again.

"I have called for strong, capable diplomacy to deal with the challenge of Iran, and a carrots and sticks strategy aimed at results--not the Bush/Cheney path, which would escalate tensions, enable attacks, and lead to unintended consequences.

"The New Yorker recently reported that one reason the administration has not yet attacked Iran is because public opinion has turned against such a course. Senator Clinton's actions undermine the American people's opposition to war with Iran. Today's advancement of the Bush strategy on Iran shows how much we need strong opposition on this issue. I learned my lesson the hard way in 2002, but it appears that others still have some learning to do."

Hmmm, see here is the difference between Edwards and Clinton, he admits and learns from mistakes. She does not see getting soldiers killed for a pointless war as a mistake, didn't in Iraq and doesn't now.



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Re: Edwards stands up to Insurance Companies (1.33 / 3)

Can he stand up for us against the terrorists? No, since he thinks it is a "bumper sticker".


by American1989 on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:09:34 PM EST

Re: Edwards stands up to Insurance Companies (none / 0)

Are you saying you approve of how Bush has handled the fight against terrorism?  Because that's exactly what he has done, treated it as a bumper sticker instead of doing anything real about the problem.

If you think the only way we can talk about terrorism is within the narrow parameters of the debate as Bush has defined it, I don't think we'll ever get on the right course at that rate.


"Another problem we have...is that in election years we behave somewhat as primitive peoples do at the time of the full moon." --Harry Truman
by Steve M on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:16:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ummm... (none / 0)

Yeah..about that...Here's the whole thing since you jackasses hate to click through.

http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/terror ism/

   "We need a bold new approach--one that is smart, tough, and targeted. This will require us to look beyond the structures of World War II and the Cold War to new tools that will allow us to target terrorism more precisely. It will require sustained U.S. leadership--but the kind that leverages the power of partnerships, rather than goes it alone." -- John Edwards

President Bush's record and his approach to terrorism have been disastrous for our relationships with other countries and have made America and the world a less safe place. As the recent National Intelligence Estimate showed, Al Qaeda has remained entrenched in Pakistan and the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan. Terrorist cells are multiplying throughout Europe. And a recent study by the New York City Police Department demonstrated that even individuals in the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by radical extremists. [NYPD, 2007]

We must replace the so-called "war on terror" doctrine with a real strategy to unify our intelligence and security efforts through closer international cooperation. As president, John Edwards will enact a comprehensive strategy to ensure that intelligence is used to root out and shut down the scourge of terrorism and to unite the world against violent extremism. We must match 21st century threats with 21st century tactics and replace Cold War thinking, designed to defeat a single, implacable enemy, with new world thinking for a multi-national, diverse, and often hidden foe. Edwards will put in place a counter-terrorism strategy that is strong, fast, and hard enough to stop terrorists, but also smart, honest, and prescient enough to draw people away from terrorism in the first place.

Terrorist cells are multiplying throughout the world, both in friendly countries and in those with whom we have challenging relationships. The entire world community of nations has an interest in defeating terrorism and restoring legitimate government. As president, Edwards will create a modern-day equivalent of NATO for terrorism: the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization (CITO). CITO will focus on high-level political and diplomatic engagement between a wide range of nation partners on all dimensions of the problem of terrorism, and operational programs like intelligence-sharing and cooperative security operations by partner nations. It will also allow the creation of a new international alliance of partner nations who clearly state that terrorism is unacceptable, and the identification and isolation of those nations who refuse to join this cause.

CITO's national and multilateral partners will include partners in all continents, including Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, who will cooperate on sharing and improving intelligence and security against terrorist cells, while respecting individual nations' sovereignty and security interests.

Going beyond institutions designed for an earlier age like NATO, the U.N. Security Council, and Interpol, while finding areas for progress, CITO will build on these institutions and meet today's new threats by providing members with much more complete interconnection and sharing of intelligence, financial, police and customs and immigration data than currently exists, enabling member nations to track down terrorists nodes of support, travel, communication, recruiting, training and financing.

CITO will establish allied response cells comprised of security professionals from member nations to work on intelligence and security assessments and that can take action against imminent terrorist threats.
Improve human intelligence

The U.S. needs to be able to root out terrorist cells both here and in other countries using increased human intelligence capability, both to support American operations and to support the operations of our partners and allies. Here at home, Edwards will establish 1,000 new two-year $20,000 annual scholarships to improve language skills, through expanded programs for teaching Arabic and Middle Eastern dialects, of students who agree to go into careers in intelligence or diplomacy.
Bolster support for foreign counterterrorism

According to a recent GAO report, many U.S. agencies lack guidance on how to support counter-terrorism operations in other countries. There also are very few standards in place to judge the effectiveness of these support operations. Within six months of taking office, Edwards will direct the Secretary of State, working with the Attorney General and other national security officials, to launch comprehensive "Counter-Terrorism Support Strategies." He will further professionalize our corps of ambassadors and place them in charge of the implementation of these Support Strategies, as well as the coordination of all efforts of law enforcement, intelligence, and civil and military programs with operations in their countries. [GAO, 2007]
Shut down WMD transfers

Any international transfer of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or unauthorized material that could be used to create WMDs is unacceptable. As president, Edwards will strengthen multilateral efforts such as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), U.N.S.C. Resolution 1540 to improve cooperation to identify and interdict weapons of mass destruction being transferred from hostile nations to terrorist organizations, and the Comprehensive Threat Reduction program. He will also accelerate efforts to provide states-in-need with financial and technical assistance to safeguard their nuclear facilities and nuclear scientists, and well as to improve their border controls.
Escalate efforts against homegrown radical extremism

We must also work hard here at home to ensure that extremist ideologies do not take hold among in our own Muslim communities--and we must do so in a way that respects diversity and civil liberties and avoids practices like racial profiling against both Arabs and Muslims. We must encourage American Muslim participation in public life. As president, Edwards will work toward these goals with new resources to engage the American Muslim community, empower local mosques to counter extremist ideas, and work hand-in-hand with Muslim communities to identify and isolate threats before they materialize.
Make our domestic agencies as effective as possible

A recent report revealed that if our agencies had cooperated better before 9/11, the attacks could possibly have been prevented. We have recently taken some steps to correct the flawed system that failed to uncover the 9/11 attacks. But we must do more. As president, Edwards will hold the Director of National Intelligence accountable for taking concrete steps to integrate and transform our intelligence community. And Edwards will strengthen cooperation between federal, state and local agencies on domestic threats by creating a Deputy Director of National Intelligence responsible for coordinating information-sharing and joint operations between federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. [CIA OIG, 2007].
Achieve energy independence

Reducing our reliance on oil from instable parts of the world will force Middle Eastern regimes to diversify their economies and modernize their societies. Fighting global climate change will reduce global disruptions that could lead to tens of millions of refugees and create massive new breeding grounds for desperation and radicalism. As president, Edwards will lead an effort to achieve energy independence through creating a new energy economy fund, investing in renewable energy, transforming the auto industry through higher fuel economy standards and innovation, and opening the electricity grid to competition.
SPECIAL COUNTRY AND REGION OPERATIONS

In addition to the steps above, John Edwards will take special measures to root out and shut down terrorist cells in particular regions and countries. These are case-by-case policies and heavily depend on current events. As commander-in-chief, he will:
Afghanistan

Increase Special Forces in the country. Perseverance and success in Afghanistan are essential for the continuing viability of the NATO alliance. As president, Edwards will work with our principal allies and the other members of NATO to ensure the commitment of adequate forces and rules of engagement robust enough to ensure their ability to defeat the Taliban and ensure continuing progress of the democratic government in Afghanistan. As part of this effort, President Edwards will commit additional American Special Forces to work against the emergence of Taliban cells in Afghanistan, which are increasingly challenging the legitimate government, as the recent kidnapping of South Korean missionaries demonstrated.
Pakistan

Work with the government to extend the state to the northwest provinces. The recent National Intelligence Estimate found that Al Qaeda has established a safe haven in the northwest provinces of Pakistan. We have given the Musharraf government billions of dollars of aid and it has done far too little to get control over these provinces. As president, Edwards will condition future American aid on progress by Pakistan. With the cooperation of the Pakistani government, he will also deploy America's extraordinary intelligence and logistical assets to support Pakistan's efforts to establish control in the northwest. This will include strengthening the reach of police forces and working more effectively with tribal leaders and their members to ensure their acceptance of the government. He will also use our aid agencies to help Pakistan develop strong educational alternatives to the madrassas that are radicalizing Pakistani youth.
Iraq

Get over-the-horizon Quick Reaction Forces up to speed. Under the Edwards plan, combat troops should be withdrawn from Iraq within the next year. Even though the presence of U.S. troops has served as an attractive target for terrorists, our withdrawal will not remove the threat. As president, Edwards will deploy troops in Quick Reaction Forces in friendly countries including Kuwait, to perform targeted missions against Al Qaeda cells in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia

Require the Saudis to do more to stop the flow of terrorists to Iraq. As president, Edwards will condition future arms packages on Saudi Arabia's actions against terrorists, and will deploy America's extraordinary intelligence and military assets to work with Saudi Arabia on border enforcement and outreach measures to stop the flow of or support for radicals into Iraq.
Iran

Pressure Iran to stop supporting insurgents in Iraq. Iran is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, actively supporting terrorist and insurgent activity not only in Iraq but in other areas, such as Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Our policy must aim to stamp out state-sponsored terrorism targeting Israel, our strongest ally in the region. Congress recently passed a bill to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. We saw in Iraq where such steps by Congress can lead President Bush. Edwards has announced his opposition to this bill. As president, Edwards will increase both diplomatic contact with the Iranian government and diplomatic pressure on the Revolutionary Guard to shut down its support of insurgent activity in Iraq and in other areas, such as Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. He will also work with multilateral partners to forge a coalition to apply diplomatic and economic pressure to stop Iran's involvement in insurgent and terrorist activity in Iraq.
Syria

Pressure Damascus to abandon terrorism. We also must get Syria to stop any involvement in terrorism, both in Iraq and in Lebanon, and any actions targeting Israel. As president, Edwards will deploy the full range of our economic and political incentives and pressures to shift Damascus away from Hezbollah and toward the mainstream of the world.
Europe

Increase outreach to Muslim community. As the recent National Intelligence Estimate revealed, Al Qaeda is establishing cells throughout Europe. To an even greater degree than in the United States, a central danger in Europe is homegrown radicalization. As president, Edwards will ask CITO to support our European allies in these operations.


by Chaoslillith on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:13:17 PM EST

Re: Ummm... (2.00 / 1)

Here's something for you.  When trying to sell your candidate, you don't call the people you're pitching to, "jackasses."  

Message lost.


by FilbertSF on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:15:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I am not pitching to him (none / 0)

I am rebutting his continuing misstatements of what Edwards says. I only call people jackasses when they repeatedly make stupid statements that have been corrected before.


by Chaoslillith on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:17:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Edwards blasts Cheney (none / 0)


Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Following Vice President Dick Cheney's comments last night affirming his support for the proposed $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, Senator John Edwards today called on Congress to speak out and oppose the deal. Edwards believes the proposed deal with Saudi Arabia could have negative consequences for the future of the region, and does nothing to shut down terrorism and get to its roots.

Edwards believes the United States needs a new approach to foreign policy. Instead of a foreign policy that is only focused on today, we need a tough, thoughtful, long-term approach focused on solving problems rather than just reacting to them, and using carrots and sticks to get everyone -- friends and foes alike -- to assist the U.S. in stopping terrorists and creating greater global security. The arms deal with Saudi Arabia lets them dictate the terms and doesn't demand they do enough to shut down terrorists and support security in Iraq and the region in return. It is not in the long-term interests of the United States or the region and could also trigger a regional arms race, even inciting Iran to accelerate their nuclear agenda.

"As we have seen, this Vice President is no expert when it comes to predicting the outcome of major foreign policy decisions," Edwards said. "Instead of the ad hoc foreign policy we've gotten from this Administration, we need a tough, strategic approach. The proposed Saudi arms deal is not in the long-term interests of the United States. Congress needs to stand firm against the White House and block this deal."

In June, Edwards laid out an aggressive plan to shut down terrorism. As commander-in-chief, he will confront terrorists and others who intend to do us harm with the full force of our military might. As president, he will apply the full extent of our security apparatus to protect our vital interests, to take measures to root out terrorist cells, and to strike swiftly and strongly against those who would do us harm.

Edwards believes the American people deserve a real foreign policy debate--not about small issues, like whether we'll have diplomacy before meetings--but about big issues like terrorism, stability, and how we make America safer. Earlier this year, Edwards laid out a mission-focused plan to shut down terrorists and stand up for American values. With terrorism around the world on the rise, Edwards believes we need a change from the Bush "Global War on Terror" Doctrine, which has backfired and has only been used to justify the worst abuses of his administration.


by Chaoslillith on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:14:47 PM EST

I know it's complicated but let me (none / 0)

make this easy for you.."War on Terror" bumpersticker phrase used to justify taking away our civil rights, hiring mercenaries, continuing the pointless war in Iraq etc etc etc.

Terrorists on the other hand are a problem that the world needs to address through intelligent, cooperative efforts.

See the difference?


by Chaoslillith on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 04:16:44 PM EST

Great diary Chaos! (none / 0)

Edwards exposing more bullshit again, is he.


It's an election, not an auction.
by cosbo on Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 10:30:16 PM EST


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