The Wall Street Journal on Thursday examined the record of Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on wellness care and other issues as city manager of Wasilla, Alaska, and as governor of the state.
As governor, "Palin didn't make health guardianship one of her whirligig priorities, just where she did take a strong stand on health, it was for the discharge market," with her "boilers suit approach" similar to the position of presumptive Republican presidential campaigner Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) -- "loosen government regulations to allow for greater competition, on with more information for patients to make good choices," according to the Journal. Palin in January said, "Health care must be grocery and business-driven, rather than restricted by government."
According to the Journal, expansion of health insurance "was less of an outlet for Gov. Palin, much as it is less significant for Sen. McCain," as she "was reluctant to documentation a significant expansion" of Denali KidCare, the state version of SCHIP. Palin increased the eligibility requirement for Denali KidCare to children in families with annual incomes up to 175% of the federal poverty spirit level -- "ungenerous compared with other states," the Journal reports.
Palin does not support embryonic stem cell research, which McCain has said he supports (Carlton et al., Wall Street Journal, 9/4).
Opinion Piece
A report released late by the U.S. Census Bureau offers the latest indication that "rising health spending is eroding bring home pay" and that "immigrants are boosting both poverty and the lack of health indemnity," but neither McCain nor Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) "severely [address] these problems," Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson writes. "Unless we control health outlay and immigration, the economical report card will continue to let down," according to Samuelson.
"Low-skilled immigrants, hard among Hispanics, outnumber the high-skilled," and they "drag down median incomes and raise poverty and the number of uninsured" because they "can't get well-paid jobs with insurance," Samuelson writes. He adds, "Immigration's effects on poverty and health indemnity coverage ar greater," as "immigrants represented 55% of the increase of the uninsured from 1994 to 2006."
Samuelson writes, "If health care spending remains uncontrolled, Americans will see more of their compensation amused from bring home pay into insurance that mainly benefits (as policy should) a small proportion of very sick people," and "if the immigration of low-skilled workers continues unabated -- whether they're legal or illegal -- the ranks of the poor testament swell, as will the uninsured or the costs of providing government insurance" (Samuelson, Washington Post, 9/3).
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