Assignment #3
This page is part of an undergraduate assignment at Davidson College.
Class website for POL 318
Health Care
Martinez:
Martinez believes in the creation of AHPs, or Association Health Plans, where groups of small businesses join together to reduce the costs of health benefits for their employees. He aligns closely with President Bush on this idea and its implementation (Lesson). He also wants to promote Health Savings accounts, or HSAs to help defray the costs of treatment and care for Florida families, as well as provide citizens with more control of doctor choice and procedure decisions. He supports carefully supervised drug reimportation (Lesson), and reducing the number of malpractice lawsuits.
Castor:
Castor is riding on her own coattails in terms of her position and plan for changes. She wants to expand her “Healthy Kids” program to become “Healthy Families”, a large success for her in the past. She plans to lower prescription drug costs by 52% by negiotiating with drug companies (Lesson) to encourage competition, as well as to import drugs from Canada at lower prices. Castor also supports giving credit to small businesses and believes in the Patients’ Bill of Rights, and the right of patients to sue HMOs. She is also an advocate of women’s healthcare coverage for breast and cervical exams.
Representation:
Each candidate appears to be targeting specific groups of constituents in terms of their messages. Castor is appealing largely to families with her “Healthy” plan, but targets women specific benefits like breast and cervical exams in her press releases. These messages also targeted (with specific images of) the Hispanic population of the state, a group Castor has to work to capitalize on more than Martinez who already has strong support from the constituent group. Martinez has reached out to the small business owners more directly with his support of AHPs and HSAs, while mentioning the large number of families that make up this group of small business owners or employees. His messages though seem to be more pointed at specific groups willing to endorse him, such as the ER physicians and these small business owners.
Both candidates seem to reach out to certain groups that constitute a strong presence in the state. Castor recognizes the needs families have in terms of affordable health care but she also represents the desires of the elderly population of the state and their fears about rising drug costs, which are also featured prominently in her ads. Martinez is capitalizing on the large groups of small business owners as well as doctors present in Florida cities where patients are not covered by adequate health care. They have both been selective in the groups they have targeted. The candidates are being strategic and focusing on groups they have strong messages for, and are delivering them with repetition and vigor to strengthen their promises.
Send comments, questions, and suggestions to emupchurch@davidson.edu
Created: October 15, 2004. Updated: October 15, 2004