Kerry proposal calls for insurance for all by 2012

Senator John F. Kerry yesterday proposed a federal requirement that all Americans have health insurance by 2012, and scolded Republicans -- and his fellow Democrats -- for not taking bold stands to guarantee universal access to healthcare.

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, used a Faneuil Hall speech to label healthcare ``the great unfinished business of half a century." Though he laid most of the blame on Republicans and the Bush administration, he made clear that he believes Democrats haven't done enough to find solutions for the more than 45 million Americans who lack health insurance.

``Our party will be hollow in purpose, expedient, and short-sighted until we renew -- and finally win -- the battle to make healthcare a right and not a privilege for every single American," Kerry said.

``We can't triangulate this issue," he added. ``The Democratic Party must stand for healthcare for all Americans, or we don't stand for anything at all."

The speech is Kerry's latest attempt to stake out policy ground in preparation for a possible second run for the presidency in 2008. Yesterday's was the third speech Kerry has delivered in recent months at Faneuil Hall -- the same setting he used to formally announce his 2004 campaign for president, and to concede defeat to President Bush the day after the election.

Much of Kerry's healthcare plan was offered during his presidential campaign, though yesterday was the first time he offered a deadline by which he would have the government guarantee universal coverage. Kerry said in an interview afterward that he intended the speech as a ``call to arms" for Democrats, saying universal healthcare is a principle the party must embrace.

``It's something that for me is at the very center of the fight we have to make," he said. ``We've got to do it. And I think there's too much nibbling at the edges rather than a frontal assault on the issue."

Kerry's plan would start with health coverage for all children by boosting federal reimbursements to states through their Medicaid programs. It also would allow individuals and employers to purchase the same health plan available to federal employees, and would reduce insurance costs across the board by having the federal government pick up catastrophic care insurance.

If anyone is left uninsured by the 2012 deadline, Kerry would require Congress to reexamine the program and figure out how to reach them. The coverage guarantee would come through some form of a government mandate, Kerry said, though he added that it's too soon to say how that would happen.

Citing 2004 estimates, Kerry aides said the plan would cost $653 billion over 10 years.

Though that represents a huge new federal expense at a time of tight budgets, Kerry said rolling back $850 billion in Bush-backed tax cuts for those earning $200,000 a year or more would more than pay for the program.

Kerry also attacked Bush for ignoring healthcare challenges, saying that the administration is as interested in fixing healthcare as it is in ``finding the real truth about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or establishing real accountability for the mass destruction of New Orleans."

That criticism drew a sharp response from Republicans, who charged that Kerry has ignored the new Medicare prescription drug program backed by the president -- something Kerry and most Democrats opposed.

``John Kerry's pitch for government-run healthcare and higher taxes on working families didn't work in '04, and it won't work now," said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.