Candidates suggest health-care remedies
Both Democratic candidates for Illinois' 8th congressional seat are concerned about uninsured Americans and the cost of health care -- but they suggested fundamentally different fixes for the problems.
Two-term incumbent Rep. Melissa Bean decried the nearly 47 million Americans who don't have affordable access to health care. She said Congress should investigate ways to reduce that figure, such as making health-insurance costs tax deductible for people who are self-employed.
Challenger Randi Scheurer's approach is more radical. She favors eradicating the private health insurance industry and moving to a single, nationalized system.
Bean, of Barrington, and Scheurer, of Lindenhurst, will face off in the Feb. 5 Democratic primary. The 8th District includes northwest Cook, western Lake and eastern McHenry counties.
The candidates answered questions about health care, insurance and other issues in questionnaires for the Daily Herald, and in follow-up interviews.
Bean said she backed several pieces of legislation to ease insurance costs for patients, including a proposal that would've allowed small businesses to share costs by joining association health plans for their employees.
She said Congress should investigate: increasing the percentage of health-care costs deductible from federal income taxes; allowing people to buy into federal employee health plans; and strengthening the state's health insurance program for children.
Eliminating waste and fraud in Medicaid, Medicare and other insurance programs also is necessary, said Bean, 45.
Scheurer, 56, would eliminate privately run health insurance companies.
She backs the idea of a single-payer health insurance system, in which private doctors would be paid from government funds. That's different than a socialized medical system in which doctors and hospitals work for the government.
Scheurer also criticized the pharmaceutical industry and what she called its "stranglehold" on patients.
"Hospitals (are) at the mercy of drug companies and their profit-driven business," she said.
Three Republicans --Kenneth Arnold, Steve Greenberg and Kirk Morris -- will face off in a GOP primary for the 8th District seat Feb. 5.