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The Issues Outlined: Health Care
By David Tibbles

Health care: defined as the physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions.  The health of our citizens is a necessity of life, and the candidates have realized that several people, especially senior citizens, are having problems playing the bills.  They realize, and understandably so, that no one wants to have to make the decision of whether to buy dinner or to buy the medication they need to survive. 

Governor George W. Bush wants to help relieve this pressure by offering some people a $2,000 tax credit to be used for insurance purposes.  He also believes in relieving restrictions placed on the CHIPS program.  He also wants to give tax credits to small business and their employees to help provide money for health care.

Gore, on the other hand, wants to provide 25% of the cost of health care in general, and give another 25% to small business and their employees, 25% to some senior citizens to help cover long term health care and prescriptions, as well as increasing the funding to the CHIPS program. 

While these are brief descriptions, check George W. Bush (http://www.georgewbush.com) and Vice President Al Gore's websites (http://www.algore.com) for their official policies and laid out plans.  The websites have links to pages that directly outlines their ideas, plans, and giving cost analysis.

Also, check out these sites offering information on the health care debate:

Sunspot.com- Based in Maryland offers a story that talks about the past benefits of plans. ( http://www.sunspot.net/content/news/story?section=news&pagename=story&storyid=1150420213841)  The article explains Gore's proposal and George Bush's responses to the proposal.  The article also shows the theory and benefits of both Republican and Democratic plans.

CNN.com- An article that talks about Gore's current tour which is focusing on the helath care issue. (http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/28/campaign.wrap/index.html)  The article quotes Gore directly about the philosophy of his proposals as well as asking questions on how the plan will work.

The decision in November will set the strategy that we as a nation will use to help provide health care for all Americans.

David Tibbles is a recent high school graduate from Council Bluffs, Iowa.