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Analysis: Obama urges 'bold' health reform

Health care is a moral issue.  We are the richest country in the world, so it's only reasonable to expect affordable health care for everyone.   After all, our children can't learn if they're sick, and our economy suffers when our labor force is sick.

Sen. Obama deserves praise for taking a bold stand on this important issue.  President Bush's plan falls short, and it's time for change in the White House.

From United Press International:

Bold action and a short timeline are needed to address the nation's healthcare crisis, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday.

"When you see what the healthcare crisis is doing to our families, to our economy, to our country, you realize that caution is what's costly," said the senator from Illinois said at an event held by consumer advocacy group Families USA. "Inaction is what's risky. Doing nothing is what's impossible when it comes to healthcare in America."

A day after President Bush unveiled his own tax break-based plan to extend coverage to some of the uninsured, Obama criticized the plan as not being bold enough.

"Plans that tinker and halfway measures now belong to yesterday," he said. "The president's latest proposal that does little to bring down cost or guarantee coverage falls into this category."

Obama Calls for Universal Health Care

This is my top priority issue.  It's morally wrong that so many families don't have access to affordable health care.  A strong economy can't function with a sick workforce.  A strong education system can't funciton with sick students.

Three cheers for Sen. Obama for proposing a bold, universal plan to provide health care for all.  You can read the text of his speech at TPM Cafe.

From the Associated Press:

Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race.

"I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," Obama told a conference of Families USA, a health care advocacy group.

He said it's wrong that 46 million in this country are uninsured when the country spends more than any one else on health care. He said Americans pay $15 billion in taxes to help care for the uninsured.

"We can't afford another disappointing charade in 2008, 2009 and 2010," Obama said. "It's not only tiresome, it's wrong."

Obama's call was an echo of a speech he made last April when he said Democrats "need to cling to the core values that make us Democrats, the belief in universal health care, the belief in universal education, and then we should be agnostic in terms of how to achieve those values."