Edwards Unveils Healthcare Plan

After a tour of a neighborhood health clinic, North Carolina Senator John Edwards promised to make healthcare a priority in the White House.
Edwards says it?s the government?s responsibility to make sure that every American child has access to health insurance.
He wants to provide tax credits that families can use to pay for employer-sponsored insurance, or buy into states? Children?s Health Insurance Programs, like New Hampshire?s Healthy Kids program.
EDWARDS :20 it is wrong that 12M children w/o health insurance. My plan will for the first time in history, cover each and every one. It takes care of our most vulnerable adults. It helps regular Americans who work their hearts out pay for cost of health care. It does so in a way that families and the country can afford.

Edwards also wants to help low-income adults buy into federal programs, like Medicare and Medicaid. He?s also proposing better oversight of pharmaceutical companies and an independent review board to weed out frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits. Edwards says he?ll stand up to the healthcare lobby.
EDWARDS :13 One of the things I learned when I got to the Senate is there are lobbyists everywhere. In fact there are more lobbyists for the insurance companies, HMOs, big drug companies than people who live in my small home town. *chuckle, chuckle*

Edwards? proposal would cost about 53 billion dollars. He says he?d raise that money by reversing some of the Bush Administration?s tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, and with a government efficiency initiative that would cut all non-defense spending by 10% over the next decade.
Edwards? rivals in the primary race are pitching healthcare plans. They try to cover the entire uninsured population, but at a higher price.
For NHPR News, I?m RMD.