Washington, DC – The Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced today the candidates who will appear at New Leadership on Health Care: A Presidential Forum. The first presidential forum of the 2008 election focused solely on health care will take place on Saturday, March 24th at 9:30 a.m. in the Cox Pavilion at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Presidential candidates who have confirmed are: Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama, Gov. Bill Richardson, and Gov. Tom Vilsack. Invitations have been extended to every Republican and Democratic presidential candidate.
Karen Tumulty, National Political Correspondent for TIME, will moderate the forum and ask the candidates questions about the issue, giving them a platform to discuss how they will address our nation’s health care crisis. With nearly 47 million Americans uninsured – including 9 million children – and millions more underinsured or facing bankruptcy due to medical costs, few issues will be as important to Americans in the 2008 presidential election as health care coverage.
“Working people all across this country want to know what the next president is going to do to make health care more affordable and accessible for their families. The time is past for incremental reform – what we need is an American solution to fix our broken health care system,” said Andy Stern, President of SEIU. “This is an opportunity for all of the presidential candidates to show voters that they will provide a new kind of leadership that gets results on health care reform.”
“Fundamental reform of America’s health care system is both a moral and economic imperative,” said John Podesta, President of CAPAF. “The public debate is no longer focused on the question of whether or not we need universal health care, but what is the best way to achieve it. It’s those answers we hope to discuss at this Forum.”
Press wishing to cover the forum must be credentialed. Click here to request credentials – http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/healthforum/mediareg.