Giuliani Out-of-Touch with New Hampshire Values

Even though it would cost more than 8,700 kids in New Hampshire needed health care coverage, Rudy Giuliani continues to oppose the bipartisan plan to provide 10 million children nationwide with health care. In Manchester today, he'll likely continue to back President Bush's veto threat of the plan while also trying to justify his support for borrowing $196 billion just for one year of the war in Iraq. [CNBC Interview, July 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnOhJtJ6_E; AP, 9/26/07, Families USA, 9/25/07]

Giuliani unveiled a new radio ad today but failed to address his support for President Bush's veto and his long record of cutting health care services for children. As mayor of New York City, he routinely slashed millions of dollars for city-run child health care clinics serving the poor and cut city funding for Medicaid and an asthma initiative for kids in the Bronx. [Newsday, 5/10/00, 3/11/97]; Kids First New York; Children's Impact Analysis of the Mayors FY96 Executive Budget, Citizens Committee for Children of New York; Daily News, 2/26/98, 2/27/98]

"Like President Bush, Rudy Giuliani would spend billions of dollars on a failed strategy in Iraq and then block funding for doctor visits kids need when they're sick and the checkups they need to stay well," said DNC Spokesman Dag Vega. "Given that he routinely cut health care benefits for kids as mayor of New York City, do Granite State voters really want four more years of a leader who would deny our kids health care?"


Giuliani Radio Ad :60
"Chances" (New Hampshire)
10/29/07
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/article/pr/941

RHETORIC
RUDY GIULIANI: "I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United States, 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England, only 44% under socialized medicine."

• REALITY
  Experts: Giuliani Plan Likely To Discourage People From Seeing Doctors, Unlikely To Actually Reduce Cost of Care. Under Giuliani's plan, individuals would be encouraged to pick the least expensive plans - those with lowest premium costs. The Concord Monitor noted that young healthy individuals would probably opt for "the equivalent of liability insurance." However, this would discourage visits with doctors; the Wall Street Journal wrote that "Experts say that providing greater benefits encourages patients to see doctors before an illness progresses too far and is costlier to treat." [Concord Monitor, 8/1/07; Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07]

RHETORIC
RUDY GIULIANI: "You and I should be making the decisions about what kind of health care we get with our doctors, not with a government bureaucrat. What we need to do is to give people a $15,000 deduction for a family, a $7500 deduction for an individual so they can go out and by their own health insurance."

• REALITY
  Deduction Is "Essentially Meaningless" For Many Families, Especially Low Income Families Likely To Be Uninsured. "Married couples with two children earning less than $42,850 this year will owe no income tax, so the $15,000 tax deduction will be essentially meaningless to them. For similar families earning $60,000, $90,000 and between $120,000 and $150,000, a $15,000 tax deduction increases annual after-tax income by $2,250, $2,450, and $3,750, respectively. In a world of $13,000 annual family health premiums, there would be little incentive for workers to replace heavily subsidized employer-provided health insurance with insurance purchased on the open market." [Editorial, Washington Times, 8/4/07 (emphasis added)]
  

RHETORIC
RUDY GIULIANI: "If we do that, and we end up with a market of 50, 60 million Americans buying their own health insurance, without a mandate, the cost of health insurance will come down and the quality will come up

• REALITY
  New York Times: Giuliani's Plan Might Actually Raise Costs. "The big risk here, it seems, is that people will fail to get the kind of preventative care that can prevent bigger, more expensive problems." ["The Caucus," NYtimes.com, 7/30/07 (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/giulianis-health-care-plan)]
  
  FactCheck.org: Giuliani Similar Claim Was "Unsupported By Any Evidence. "Giuliani made a claim, unsupported by any evidence we can find, that health insurance rates would drop by half if more citizens bought their own health insurance." [Factcheck.org, 10/22/07, http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/florida_fandango.html]

RHETORIC
RUDY GIULIANI: "Government has never been able to reduce costs. Government never increases quality. We have the best health care system in the world. We just have to make it better."

• REALITY
  Giuliani Cut Health Programs, Including Prostate Screening Program, As Mayor. "Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's budget, unveiled last month as he was being tested for prostate cancer, would eliminate a $ 750,000 program that provides free screenings for the disease for uninsured New Yorkers." [Newsday (New York), 5/10/00]

As Mayor, Giuliani Pushed More Onto Government Health Programs. "Giuliani launched a massive 'HealthStat' program in 2000 to get city employees to increase the number of uninsured, low-income kids and adults into public programs such as Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus."

RHETORIC
VOICEOVER: "Rudy Giuliani. Leadership. Principle. Results."

RUDY GIULIANI: "I'm Rudy Giuliani and I approved this message."

VOICEOVER: "Paid for by Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee Incorporated. Visit joinrudy2008.com"