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Pitching Edwards And His Supporters: Health Care Coverage

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

In the battle for gaining the support of John Edwards and his supporters, Hillary Clinton has one big advantage - the health care issue. A review of the respective plans demonstrates that Hillary Clinton is quite close to John Edwards while Barack Obama fundamentally differs on the issue of mandates. Last November, Ezra Klein wrote:

. . . The short version of the argument is that Obama's plan has no mandate at all, meaning it has no mechanism through which to achieve universal coverage, and Hillary Clinton's plan has an undefined mandate, meaning we don't know how it will achieve universal coverage. Clinton's position is better, but it's still a bit vague. Later today, John Edwards will announce the specifics of how his mandate works. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) It is interesting how much of the wonkosphere has gone silent on this difference between Obama and Clinton. Take for instance, Ezra Klein's post mortem on Edwards:

"[Edwards'] insistence on centering his campaign around a bold vision for health care reform bettered the campaigns of his opponents.

But who's plan is better? I do not pretend to know. I DO know that people like Ezra Klein spent a lot of time arguing how important mandates were. And how important the health care issue is. But when it comes to choosing between Clinton and Obama, it turns out the issue does not matter at all it seems. So which is it? Important or not? Will it be important to John Edwards? His supporters? Apparently it is not important anymore to some in the wonkosphere.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 31, 2008 (boomark / email).