Democratic Presidential Candidates Discuss Health « Thread Started on Sept 13, 2007, 6:35am » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Election 2008 | Democratic Presidential Candidates Discuss Health Care, Other Issues at Univision Debate [Sep 10, 2007]read at source> http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_repo ... 47393Seven Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday during a debate that aired on Univision discussed health care and other issues, USA Today reports. During the debate, held on the campus of the University of Miami, Univision news anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas asked questions in Spanish, and the candidates received translations in English (Wolf/Marrero, USA Today, 9/10).Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) said that he has proposed a "comprehensive plan for universal health care so that all will have medical insurance."New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said his universal health insurance proposal would take one year to pass and two to three to implement. In addition, he said that "we need to have everyone accessible to the best (inaudible) plan that everyone here has," reduce the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 55, provide veterans with a "health card for all" and focus on preventive medicine.Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) said that he supports "medical care for those who are undocumented" immigrants and universal health insurance.Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) said that "we're going to make it possible for all to have health care; not only 47 million who are uninsured, but those millions of people who are insured who don't ... receive treatment" because of the cost.Former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska) proposed a voucher system, under which U.S. residents "get a chance to choose from five insurance plans" that compete for members.Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) said that federal lawmakers can no longer "negotiate with the drug companies and insurance companies, and their lobbyists" and must "face these people and change the system."Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) promoted a bill (HR 676) he has proposed that would establish a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system called Medicare for All. He added that, "as long as we're stuck with this system where insurance companies make $600 billion a year (inaudible), spending that ought to go directly to health, we're not going to get the care we need" (Debate transcript, CQ Transcriptions, 9/9).