News Release

October 14, 2004

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Kerry health plan is clearly government-run health care
Health Savings Accounts are the antidote

WASHINGTON-In Wednesday night's final presidential debate, Sen. John F. Kerry reiterated his claim that his health care reform plan is not a government-run health plan.

"The facts just don't bear out Sen. Kerry's claim," said Cato Institute Director of Health Policy Studies Michael Cannon. "Sen. Kerry's health care reform proposal is a plan for government-run health care in every way."

Cannon cited a number of ways the Kerry health plan would put the government in charge of patients' medical decisions:

• Kerry would move millions of Americans from private health insurance to public programs where government decides what is covered and what isn't.

• Kerry's health alliance would nationalize catastrophic health insurance, thereby bringing government bureaucrats between privately-insured patients and their doctors.

• Kerry's health care tax credits do nothing to change the current system's perverse incentives, and would merely entice individuals and businesses to sign up for one of Kerry's government-run programs.

"What Sen. Kerry offers Americans is not so much a choice as it is bait," said Cannon. "Americans would naturally accept the lavish subsidies he proposes, but would soon find themselves in the midst of an even greater health care crisis. Kerry certainly doesn't offer taxpayers a choice about whether to pay the $1.3 trillion tax increase he would need to fund his health plan."

Cannon praised President Bush's diagnosis of America's health care system and Bush's support for health savings accounts, an idea first proposed by the Cato Institute over a decade ago. "Health care is so expensive precisely because we pretend that it's free," said Cannon. "Health savings accounts are already making health insurance affordable for millions of Americans and will spark a health care revolution that will control costs marketwide through greater choice and competition."