Huckabee- Health

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During the track of his campaign Republican candidate Mike Huckabee has been asked a tremendous amount of questions on his views towards health care. In return, Huckabee has responded stating, “We can make health care more affordable by reforming medical liability; adopting electronic record keeping; making health insurance more portable from one job to another; expanding health savings accounts to everyone, not just those with high deductibles; and making health insurance tax deductible for individuals and families as it now is for businesses... When I'm President, Americans will have more control of their health care options, not less.” This response could be easily said, but in reality could it easily be accomplished? (Huckabee)

Huckabee believes, “Americans who live healthy lifestyles should be rewarded in the cost of their health insurance. In a consumer-based system, we have some skin in the game, some incentives to stay healthy . . . so that we’ll have tax-free money coming back to us from our health savings accounts.” Many believe Huckabee poorly demonstrates the issue on health and seemingly tries to give the people of the United States false hope. (The People to People Organization)

Though some believe that Huckabee “has what seems to be a practical long-term approach to health-care reform.” This is mostly due to the fact that Huckabee had issues with his own health; this issue being his weight. During his time of being a Baptist Minister Huckabee faced the problem of being overweight, but soon after Huckabee came to realize that his life may be at risk and started his routine walks and healthy eating habits, this finally leading to his weight loss of an astonishing 120 pounds. If it were that simple then in the United States of America, being overweight or obese wouldn’t be such a great health issue. In America 62% of adults and 34% of children are overweight and or obese. Having such high percentages of Americans being overweight Huckabee’s health plan, seeks to create “insurance rewards for those who avoid using tobacco, drinking alcohol, and staying fit.” This issue of being overweight and of obese helps Huckabee, but could it also help him tackle the plans of Medicare, medical, and all those other health questions that America faces today?( Jackson Free Press)

Huckabee has many great ideas and plans on health care, but are his ideas up to date with today’s problems rather than tomorrows or yesterdays? “The problem with Huckabee’s plan, however, is that it looks too far into the future.” How does it look too far into the future? Well, Huckabee states that when he is president, “he will ‘work with the private sector, Congress, health-care providers, and other concerned parties to lead a complete overhaul of our health care system,’” This being said, Huckabee doesn’t seem to look at the actuality and with the things that need to be faced with now rather then ahead. He doesn’t see “the immediate health-care problem staring us in the face.” ( Jackson Free Press)

Some wonder if the republican parties share the same view on certain issues. In this case Huckabee has a similar outlook of health plans with fellow republican running mate, Mitt Romney. The similarity here is that Huckabee points out the fact that health care “should move from employer-based to consumer-based” Mitt Romney shares the same concept. Huckabee disagrees about the fact that employers spend ridiculous amounts to “employers spend and to insure employees, citing that ‘General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel, $1,500 per car,’ and ‘Starbucks spends more on health care than it does on coffee beans.’” The main issue of health care is what seems to be the key to every voter’s decision on whether they agree on the strong oppositions their candidate gives their input on. (Mike Huckabee)

Another big issue that has to do with health is outcome of AIDS and what each candidate views are on it. In 1992 former Baptist Minister Mike Huckabee had been asked what should done with the AIDS patients in response Huckabee stated, “the call for quarantining AIDS patients” but now in 2008 Huckabee was asked if he stands by that now he replied, “I had simply made the point that in the late '80s, when we didn't know as much as we do now about AIDS, we were acting more out of political correctness…” The answer that Huckabee had given in 1992 could very easily allow other candidates to re-quote him and allow him to look like the bad guy. (Huckabee)

All in all Huckabee is like any other candidate on the issues of health, whether being democrat or republican, his views on health care are nearly the same as the ones of his fellow running mates. Though questions involving health care are important, many could take in consideration the fact that all candidates running have the same ideas, whether ones may seem a bit more promising than the others, a flaw could always be seen.

Work cited

Source A : Huckabee, Mike. "Mike Huckabee for President- Issues". 2/5/08

Source B: Hope, "Health Affairs". The People to People Organization. 2/5/08

Source C: Jackson Free Press, "Let’s (Health) Care For Ourselves". Jackson Free Press. 2/5/08

Source D: "Mike Huckabee on Health Care". On the Issues. 2/7/08