SOURCE: SeattleTimes
Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Universal care is right for Iraq, Thompson says

WASHINGTON — Fresh from a two-day weekend visit to Iraq, the Bush administration's top health-care official defended the $950 million that will be spent to help Iraq establish universal health care.

Congressional Democrats have criticized the administration for helping Iraq to establish universal health care without doing the same for U.S. citizens.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said yesterday there are major differences between the two countries that defy simple comparisons.

"Even if you don't have health insurance," said Thompson, who toured medical facilities in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Tikrit on Saturday and Sunday, "you are still taken care of in America. That certainly could be defined as universal coverage. Every American's health care is far superior to what the health care is in Iraq."

Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, responded yesterday, saying the U.S. system doesn't sufficiently meet the needs of 44 million uninsured Americans.