More Details on Edward's Health Care Plan

Last week, John Edwards fleshed out more details of his universal health care plan. The cost savings from his proposal would save the average family $2,000-2,500 a year and cut waste in the health care system by $130 billion. One of the biggest piece of his plan is the establishment of health markets to encourage competition among insurance companies. They will also have to compete against what Edward's calls "Medicare-plus", a government plan that all people can join. The new information mostly centered on the cost savings reaped by the potential implementation of Edward's plan.

Edwards would require that insurance companies spend 85% of their revenues on patient care, in contrast to the 70% they spend now. He also wants to add a new option for drug companies to forgo their long patents. Edwards would give them a cash prize on the front end for developing drugs that treat diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer. In exchange, they would drop their patent rights, so that the end result is a generic more affordable drug. He would also require chronic care management, with each patient having a doctor in charge of their coordinate care. Chronic disease treatment and preventative care would be required to be covered in all health care plans. He also encourages the adoption of electronic medical records. Edwards wants to create a central organization within the Institute of Medicine that tests new devices and drugs head-to-head, disseminates best practices nationally. He advocates for the creation of a health care Consumer Reports-type publication to help patients make better choices and encourage providers to offer better services for lower costs.

While, not technical a cost reduction piece of his plan, Edwards also did detail his plans to improve working conditions with the goal to lure back 50,000 nurses who have left the profession and bring in another 50,000 young people into nursing.

Here is is at his press conference:

For more information read this official campaign blog post.