Democrats talk health care at Iowa forum

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By Ed Tibbetts | Monday, August 27, 2007 11:55 PM CDT | () comments

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton took different approaches Monday to how they would treat insurance and drug companies in reforming the country’s health-care system, as they and two other Democratic presidential hopefuls took part in a cancer forum put on by the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Edwards said special interests stopped universal care from happening in the 1990s, and they can’t be partnered with to make changes.

“I think if you give drug companies and insurance companies and their lobbyists a seat at the table, they’ll eat all the food,” he said. “I think you need to take them on.”

Under questioning from co-moderator Chris Matthews, Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, said pharmaceutical companies that make life-saving drugs are part of the equation, though.

“We need to control and manage any special interest,” she said. “I believe in working with everybody and being influenced by nobody.”

North Carolina’s Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential candidate, has already challenged the Democratic field not to take money from lobbyists. After the forum, he called their approaches a “fundamental difference.”

Two forums are being sponsored by the foundation in Cedar Rapids, with Edwards, Clinton, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, participating Monday.

Today, two Republicans, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will take part in the Republican forum. Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor, is co-moderating the event with MSNBC’s Matthews.

All the Democrats criticized the stagnant level of funding at the National Institutes of Health, which oversees government funding of cancer research. Clinton and Edwards both said they would double NIH funding, although after the forum, Edwards said he would do it in four years. Clinton put out a plan that said it would take her 10 years.

A frequent refrain among the candidates Monday was shifting money spent on Iraq to the fight against cancer.

“This president wants a surge on the war in Iraq. I want a surge in the war on cancer,” Richardson said. He added he would put cost controls on insurance companies.

Kucinich, the only presidential hopeful pushing for a national health-care system, said the other candidates don’t go far enough.

“These insurance companies make money not providing health care,” Kucinich said.

He said he was best positioned to take on the insurance industry.

Armstrong and Matthews also pressed the candidates to say they would make the fight against cancer a national priority and sought answers to how candidates would deal with smoking, which causes a third of the cancer deaths in the country.

Edwards said he didn’t know if it was constitutional, but he would support a national ban on smoking in public places. Clinton said she supports a ban, too, but implementing one is an issue best left to states and localities.

On other issues, Clinton said she would seek to give individuals in certain circumstances more latitude to use experimental drugs to treat cancer.

Several candidates chose not to come to the forums, including GOP front-runners like former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who are cancer survivors, as well as former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama,D-Ill., a leading Democrat, also did not appear.

After Monday’s forum, Armstrong said there would be other chances and, addressing the audience, he said: “I would encourage anybody in the room to subtly pressure them to show up and discuss the number one killer in the country.”

Asked about the disagreement between Clinton and Edwards, Armstrong told reporters after the forum he wouldn’t grade the candidates but noted drugs he took for his cancer saved his life. He also appeared to agree with Clinton’s notion of cooperation.

“There has to be some cooperation and some collaboration there,” he said.

Cancer kills 1,500 people a day, according to the Armstrong Foundation. It also has an economic cost of $200 billion a year, Armstrong said.

All the Democrats pledged to make fighting the disease a national priority, with several relating the battles of people they know personally or have met on the campaign trail.

Clinton specifically mentioned Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, and White House spokesman Tony Snow.

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.