Obama and Edwards unite on health care
This is interesting. At a campaign stop in Raleigh, N.C., today, U.S. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, made a surprise announcement. He’s going to work with Elizabeth Edwards on health care. Yes. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Sen. and one-time rival John Edwards. Yes, Elizabeth Edwards, who did not endorse the Illinois senator when her husband did. Yes, Elizabeth Edwards, who criticized Obama’s health care plan (and U.S. Sen. John McCain’s, too; he’s the presumptive Republican nominee) and embraced the plan offered by Sen. Hillary Clinton, the long-time health care maven.
I’d like to see Ms. Edwards steer Obama away from incentives for buying health insurance and toward single-payer health care.
What do you think of Obama’s health care plan? Do you think Ms. Edwards can help shape Obama’s health care policy into something that would help America and Americans? What would that be?
Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky. 
Everyone should be very careful about any proposal that extends tax credits and then allows you to buy your own insurance. If you are unemployed, like me, it would be great. Howver, if you have an employer paid plan think about how insurance is sold. The older you are, the more it costs. So, if, let’s say they give you a $12,000 tax credit to buy insurance, that might be great if you are 25, but if your employer is presently paying for most of yours, and now you are on your own, you might have to reach into your pocket big time to pay the rest, which, if you have a pre-exisiting condition, which most people over fifty do, could be astronomical. These proposals are simply a way to transfer the cost of insuing everyone onto the older adults.