3 offer views at first forum
Syracuse Post-Standard
Mike McAndrew
September 17th, 2008
25th District candidates for Congress focus on health, differ on solutions.
By Mike McAndrew Staff writer
The three candidates running for the 25th Congressional District seat agree that the country's current health care system is flawed because 2.5 million New Yorkers are uninsured.
But Tuesday, in the campaign's first public forum, the candidates told a small group of health professionals at SUNY Upstate Medical University that they favor different solutions.
Democrat Dan Maffei said the best health care system "would probably be a public-private partnership" whereby the government would provide Medicare-like coverage for anyone who does not have private health insurance.
Republican Dale Sweetland said he is skeptical that the government can run a public health program that provides medical care for everyone and is not beset by fraud and waste.
Green Populist Party candidate Howie Hawkins said the solution is a single-payer national program that provides health care for everyone and is funded through payroll taxes and by increasing income taxes on the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans.
The three candidates were civil toward each other as they answered questions during the 75-minute event at Weiskotten Hall. The candidates' first forum was sponsored by SUNY Upstate and the United University Professions union. About 25 people attended, including campaign workers and reporters.
Of the three candidates, Hawkins provided the most specific answers.
He pledged to support a pending bill with 91 co-sponsors - HR 676 - that would replace the private health insurance system with a single-payer national program covering all Americans.
"Only the politicians and the insurance companies that finance them are standing in the way," Hawkins said.
Asked about the bill by Dr. James Holsapple, a neurosurgeon, Sweetland said he supports the goals of the bill but would not commit to voting for it.
For a decade, Sweetland said, he sold crop insurance to farmers through a program created by Congress. "It doesn't work," he said. "You can't find a farmer in this state who will tell you it works for them.
"I have not seen government put anything in place and manage it really well," Sweetland said.
Maffei said he is not sure if he would vote for the legislation because of the taxes needed to fund it.
"I'm interested in pushing the envelope in the direction so that . . . everybody would have access to health care and people would have an option, if necessary, that's similar to Medicare. But I think that it has to be from the bottom up. What concerns me about Howie's approach is that he's so absolutely convinced that everybody, or the majority of Americans, is for this. I'm not sure if the majority of Americans even know what single payer means," Maffei said.
Mike McAndrew can be reached at mmcandrew@syracuse.com or 470-3016.
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