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Edwards Backs Mandatory Preventive Care    [

    Edwards Gets Fresh Union Backing for White House Bid
    By Jim Wolf
    Reuters

    Monday 03 September 2007

    Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards won trade union backing on Monday from steelworkers and mineworkers, putting him ahead of rivals in declared union support, his campaign said.

    The former senator from North Carolina, endorsed by the carpenters' union on Thursday, now has the support of unions representing more than 1.8 million members and retirees, more than any other candidate in the November 2008 White House race, Edwards' campaign said.

    Edwards picked up the backing of the United Steelworkers, which calls itself the largest U.S. private-sector industrial union with 1.2 million members and retirees, and the United Mine Workers of America, which represents 105,000 active and retired coal miners.

    The endorsements were to be announced formally at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for Edwards, Democrat John Kerry's vice presidential running mate in 2004.

    "These are the workers who built the middle class in America, and they are the backbone of the American labor movement," Edwards said in a statement. "They understand how important it is to fight back when jobs, safety, standards and our values are at risk."

    The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the biggest federation of U.S. unions, last month freed its 55 member unions to make their own recommendations in the presidential race.

    Last week, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, with about 720,000 active and retired members, made its first-ever dual endorsement. It backed both Democrat Hillary Clinton, her party's front-runner, and Republican Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor.

    Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, another Democratic hopeful, won the endorsement last week of the 280,000-member International Association of Fire Fighters.

    Clinton has won the backing of the United Transportation Union, with 125,000 active and retired members, which on August 28 became the first AFL-CIO union to name its choice for the 2008 vote.

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    Edwards Backs Mandatory Preventive Care
    By Amy Lorentzen
    The Associated Press

    Sunday 02 September 2007

    Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

    "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.