Kerry seized on a census report released Thursday saying the number of Americans without health insurance had grown by 1.4 million last year, to 45 million. (He did not mention that the report also found the number of insured grew by nearly 1 million people.)
"We now have about 45 million Americans who go to bed every night worried, wake up in the morning, don't know what choices they're going to make," Kerry said. "In fact, we scheduled this meeting here today, on a Thursday, so it wouldn't interfere with your weekend trip to Canada to buy prescription drugs, folks."
Kerry faulted Bush and the president's Republican allies in Congress as blocking Democratic proposals to let Americans buy lower-cost foreign prescription drugs, a concept Kerry supports.
Framing healthcare as a matter of values, Kerry asked: "Can you explain that in terms that are rational? What's the value of making it harder for seniors to get less expensive drugs in America?"
"The value," he said, "was to make sure that the powerful, great big friends and the big drug companies get taken care of."
Kerry also criticized Bush and congressional Republicans as adopting Medicare reforms that barred the government from making bulk purchases of prescription drugs to cut patient costs.
"They actually wrote in a prohibition," he said. "That's a value choice, my friends."
"And when John Edwards and I are in there," Kerry said. "So help me, we're going to let people use the marketplace."
The Bush campaign responded with a statement by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). He said Bush was committed to "expanding access to affordable healthcare," and deserved credit for "the most sweeping reform of Medicare in the program's history."
After the forum, Kerry campaigned in St. Paul at the Minnesota State Fair, where a thick scent of deep-fried food filled the air. Kerry bought a corndog, slathered it with ketchup and mustard, took two bites, and handed it off to an aide.
Then a heckler called, "Lies, lies, lies. Kerry is a liar," but many others shook Kerry's hand or posed for snapshots with him.
At the Santa Monica hotel dinner, Tony Bennett warmed up the crowd with by singing "Fly Me to the Moon" and three other songs with a backup quartet.
Today, Kerry will campaign outside San Francisco in Daly City, where he plans to release a package of proposals to crack down on predatory lenders and tighten regulation of credit card companies, aides said.
The plan would require disclosure on credit-card statements of how long it would take, and how much it would cost, to repay a loan by making minimum payments.
It would also prohibit misleading marketing tactics in selling insurance to U.S. troops.
Times staff writer Matea Gold contributed to this report.
--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---
The article states inaccurately that the number of Americans without health insurance had grown by 1.4 million last year. The figure, based on Census Bureau data, refers to the number of people in America and does not specify whether they are citizens.
--- END NOTE ---
