Edwards pledges he and wife will stay in the race
Attends forum on Democrats' health agendas
LAS VEGAS -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said yesterday that he is "definitely in the race for the duration," and that his wife, Elizabeth, "will be there every step of the way to make sure I do it" even as she fights a recurrence of breast cancer.
As Mrs. Edwards wiped a tear from her eye, the former North Carolina senator recalled the struggles the couple has endured with the death of their teenage son in 1996 and the devastating first diagnosis of breast cancer that Elizabeth Edwards revealed the day her husband and 2004 presidential nominee John F. Kerry conceded the race to President Bush.
Edwards said he and his wife understand that they need focus and maturity to run a presidential campaign while she is being treated for cancer.
"I know, because we have done it in the past, that we can do it," he told union members at a Democratic healthcare forum. Mrs. Edwards, who was sitting in the audience, was applauded by the group.
The forum, sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress, was a rare, issue-centered event in a campaign that has been largely dominated by announcements of high-profile endorsements and fund-raising accomplishments.
While the seven Democratic presidential aspirants did not debate, all had to explain their healthcare agendas and take questions posed by the audience at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, as well as from the Internet.
The labor union vote is a critical constituency in Nevada, which has moved up its caucuses to next January. Several candidates wooed workers from the Culinary Union on Friday night, and all but one of the announced Democratic candidates, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, made the trip to appear before SEIU yesterday.
The candidates won applause for their common pledges to provide universal healthcare to all Americans. But few offered detailed plans on how they would ensure that all citizens would be covered and how they would pay for it.
"Keep in mind our campaign right now is a little over eight weeks old," said Illinois Senator Barack Obama, explaining to an audience member why he had not yet offered a detailed healthcare plan. But he said he would be issuing one in the next two months, and that as president, "I want to be held accountable for getting it done."
Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, who failed to win congressional approval for a healthcare plan she devised as first lady in the early 1990s, suggested that she supported mandatory coverage, saying she favored an "individual responsibility policy" in providing health insurance to all Americans.
While Clinton did not specifically endorse the Massachusetts plan requiring residents to obtain health insurance, she did describe a "pool, a sharing arrangement" to provide coverage, backed up by a "government-sponsored approach to complement the employer system," which is similar to the nascent Bay State plan.
"I know better than anybody how hard this will be. I've got the scars to prove it," Clinton said, repeating a wry joke she has made before on the campaign trail in reference to the failed plan of the 1990s. But "I am proud to say that we tried. We may not have succeeded, but we set the groundwork in place."
Edwards was the first Democratic candidate in the 2008 campaign to present a detailed plan for universal coverage.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson yesterday unveiled details of his plan, which would require Americans to have healthcare coverage and require employers to help pay for it. Representative Dennis Kucinich , Democrat of Ohio, is promoting an earlier approach to provide care through a single-payer, not-for-profit entity.
Several of the candidates said they could save money within the healthcare system by moving to an electronic record-keeping system, which many have endorsed as a way to cut down on unnecessary retesting that doctors do because they do not have easy access to a patient's records.
But Edwards was blunt and unapologetic in stating that he would need to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for his healthcare plan.
"I do not think you can have universal healthcare without having an additional source of revenue. We do not get universal healthcare for free," Edwards said. Referring to unnamed candidates who say they can cover the 47 million Americans without health insurance while eliminating the federal deficit, Edwards said, "they've probably got a bridge in Brooklyn they want to sell you, too."
Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said universal healthcare plan costs could be partly offset by repealing tax cuts for the top 2 percent income-earners.
Richardson and several other candidates said the nation must focus more on preventive care to avoid paying for serious illnesses caused by poor diet and lack of exercise. Richardson also said he could cut costs by diminishing the "bureaucracy" that contributes greatly to escalating healthcare costs. 