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Anne Northup Supports Government-Business Partnerships For Healthcare

By Richard Lewis

In 1994 Anne Northup helped draft and then cosponsored HB 366. HB 366 was a 95 page mandated health plan that would require every Kentucky resident to show proof of health insurance before paying Kentucky taxes each year under penalty of fine!

This bill would have required Kentucky taxpayers to guarantee the financial success of the health insurance company whose basic health plan they would be forced to purchase under penalty of fine.

HB 366 also created financial incentives to replace malpractice jury trials with binding arbitration. This far reaching 95 page bill devoted 20 pages to replacing tobacco with an alternative crop and even created regulations and fines for riding a bicycle.

Does Mrs. Northup believe that an ordinary House Bill is a legitimate mechanism for effecting such a paradigm shift? 

Mrs. Northup has been a strong supporter of free trade agreements.

How does Mrs. Northup define "Free Trade" and "Global Competition"? Does she define "Global Competition" as changing our identity? Europe, Japan and Canada have "Universal Health Care" and limited access to jury trials. If Mrs. Northup's "Mandated Health Plan" had become law.... Kentucky, like Europe and Japan would have had universal health care and limited access to jury trials. Most Americans do not define giving up their identity and joining the other team as competition! 

Does Mrs. Northup believe that Kentucky must have limited access to jury trials and a subsidized health industrial complex in order to compete successfully in a global economy?

Europe and Japan subsidize their health care system, but they also subsidize other key industries using tax dollars to purchase capital equipment and retrain employees . Europe and Japan also have the highest individual savings rates in the industrial world because of their high consumption taxes.[Please note Kentucky is now using our tax dollars to retrain Ford manufacturing employees ]

Excerpts below are Quoted from >From Anne Northup's 2007 Gubernatorial Campaign Website

"I have been interested in healthcare issues since I began serving in the General Assembly in 1987. I was especially concerned about the Healthcare Reform Act in 1994 because I foresaw its unintended negative effects. Sure enough, that legislation drove up the cost of insurance in Kentucky, made it more complicated, and drove most of our insurance carriers out of the Commonwealth."

"Even then I drafted a bill that relied on market pressures to expand coverage and contain costs. That bill contained many of the ideas that are becoming increasingly popular today." Specifically, it separated catastrophic coverage from day-to-day usage as a way to reduce the cost of medical care and health insurance, and increase the availability of stopgap coverage." http://www.northup-hoover2007.com/issues

Does Mrs. Northup still support the goals found in HB 366? Would she try to implement these ideas if she becomes Kentucky's next governor?

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