Drugs: Costs/Importation

• Use the federal government's bulk purchasing power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs for the Medicare Part D program. The Veterans Administration currently does this, but current Medicare law prohibits government negotiation with pharmaceutical companies.
• Allow safe medicine to be imported from other developed nations.
• Require federal benefit programs to use more generic drugs.
• Boost competition in drug and insurance markets.
• Encourage generic drugs to move quickly into the marketplace.

Drug Safety

• Allow safe medicine to be imported from other developed nations.

Electronic Record Keeping

• Move the nation to electronic record keeping for health care, using federal funds.

Medicare

• Leave Medicare intact.
• Change Medicare's drug insurance program, known as Medicare Part D, to lower costs and the number of plans (the large number of plans have made decisions more confusing for some people).
• Mandate that Part D drug discounts and prices be negotiable (under current law the government is not allowed to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies).
• Expand eligibility for Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover more families and workers.

Stem Cells

• Expand research on human embryonic stem cells that were created for fertility treatments and would otherwise be discarded.
• Support continued research on adult stem cell use and umbilical cord blood use.

Public Health Issues

• Strengthen public health efforts both for protection from disasters and disease prevention.
• Combat obesity, especially in children.
• Eliminate junk food in school vending machines and make school lunches healthier.
• Fight AIDS worldwide.

Abortion

• Supports Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
• Leave women free to decide on so-called "partial-birth abortion" (the procedure is one used in some late-term abortions in the second trimester or later).
• Reduce teen pregnancy.

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Information compiled by Michele Foust, WebMD Medical News.

Medically reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

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The content contained in WebMD's "Health Matters in the 2008 Election" section is for informational purposes only. WebMD does not endorse any specific political party, candidate, committee, idea or belief.

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