"It requires
that everybody be covered. It requires that
everybody get preventive care," he told a
crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the
Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going
to be in the system, you can't choose not to
go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to
go in and be checked and make sure that you
are OK."
He noted, for
example, that women would be required to
have regular mammograms in an effort to find
and treat "the first trace of problem."
Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced
earlier this year that her breast cancer had
returned and spread.
Edwards
said his mandatory health care plan would
cover preventive, chronic and long-term
health care. The plan would include mental
health care as well as dental and vision
coverage for all Americans.
"The whole
idea is a continuum of care, basically from
birth to death," he said.
The former
North Carolina senator said all presidential
candidates talking about health care "ought
to be asked one question: Does your plan
cover every single American?"
"Because
if it doesn't they should be made to explain
what child, what woman, what man in America
is not worthy of health care," he said.
"Because in my view, everybody is worth
health care."
Edwards
said his plan would cost up to $120 billion
a year, a cost he proposes covering by
ending
President Bush's tax cuts to people
who make more than $200,000 per year.
Edwards,
who has been criticized by some for calling
on Americans to be willing to give up their
SUVs while driving one, acknowledged Sunday
that he owns a
Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased
within the year, and a Chrysler Pacificia,
which he said he has had for years.
"I think
all of us have to move, have to make
progress," he said. "I'm not holyier-than-thou
about this. ... I'm like a lot of Americans,
I see how serious this issue is and I want
to address it myself and I want to help lead
the nation in the right direction."
He said he
would not buy another SUV in the future.
The Ford
Escape, the first hybrid SUV on the market,
gets an estimated 36 mpg in the city and 31
mpg on the highway.
