. . . on the how Bush and Kerry will approach the various health-care issues. An excerpt:

. . . Kenneth E. Thorpe, an Emory University professor of health policy who has evaluated both plans, estimates that Kerry’s would reduce the number of uninsured by nearly 27 million; Bush’s would cut it by 2.4 million.

Besides the effect on insurance coverage, the proposals differ in two other ways. Kerry would pay for his plan by rolling back tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, cuts that Bush firmly defends. Bush emphasizes the private sector to expand coverage, while Kerry would rely on a mix of government and private insurance.

“My reading of these two proposals,” Thorpe said, “is that health care on the domestic side is likely to be the biggest area of policy difference between these two campaigns, both in terms of the impact the proposals would have, the structure of the proposals and the financing of the proposals.” . . .

. . . Bush and Kerry have sharp differences over proposals to bring down health care costs. The president favors capping medical malpractice lawsuits; Kerry opposes such caps. Kerry wants to allow Americans to import low-cost prescription drugs from Canada; Bush has repeatedly rejected the idea . . .