Sweetland misses candidate forum on health care
Syracuse Post-Standard
Mike McAndrew
October 3rd, 2008
There was an empty chair between Democrat Dan Maffei and Green Populist Howie Hawkins on the Palace Theatre stage at a congressional candidates forum on universal health care Thursday night.
Republican Dale Sweetland was missing.
Sweetland said a campaign scheduling conflict caused his absence. He was in Rochester, at the other end of the 25th District, talking to a few hundred student nurses at an event sponsored by the New York State Nurses Association.
"You can't be in two places at one time," Sweetland said.
About 60 people were at the forum in Eastwood, which was sponsored by the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans.
Syracuse University professor Eric Kingson opened the event by providing a broad array of facts concerning the health care crisis.
For instance, 46 million uninsured people in America in 2007; one third of the adults aged 19 to 29 have no health insurance; 27 percent of the nation's bankruptcy filings are primarily due to medical debts; Americans pay twice as much per person for annual health care than do citizens of nearly every other industrial nation; and sick Americans wait longer to get a doctor appointment than do citizens of every industrial country except Canada.
Maffei and Hawkins took different positions on how to attack the problem.
Hawkins said he would vote for a pending House bill that would create a single-payer, government-provided health insurance for all Americans. He said the program would be paid for through a 7 percent employee payroll tax and a 2 percent income tax on individuals.
Maffei said he does not support that bill, but favors government-provided health insurance for all children.
"How many of you are supporters of the single-payer plan?" Maffei asked the crowd. Almost everyone raised their hands. Maffei said, "I don't believe you are necessarily representative of the entire district or the entire country."
He said his campaign's research shows that about half the people in the district favor the single-payer health insurance plan, but half object to a government-run health insurance system.
Sam Feld of Syracuse, one of the seniors attending the forum, stepped up to the microphone and urged the candidates to support single-payer government-provided health insurance for everyone.
"Medicare for everyone. We can afford it. We must have it," Feld said.
Maffei and Hawkins both said they would support requiring businesses to let employees take parental leave after the birth of a child, but Maffei said the government should help businesses shoulder that cost.
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