The Good, The Perfect and the Wisconsin Compromise
I attended an interesting conference on “Health Care for All,” sponsored by Citizen Action at Rutgers University today, with a lot of breathless anticipation about how the 2008 elections were going to provide a mandate to finally get a national health plan. That is, if our policy-thinkers and policy-makers don’t compromise it to death. Dr. Oliver Fein, of Physicians for a National Health Plan, provided a spirited advocacy for universal single payer health care – “Medicare for All” – with a direct challenge to the for-profit insurance lobby and the compromisers. Too bad he’s not running for President. Representatives for Obama’s and Clinton’s campaigns were in attendance and said a whole lot about nothing, which does not bode well for voters’ supposed mandate for meaningful reform. In the face of federal inaction, many states are putting together piecemeal, stop-gap programs. New Jersey’s slow move in this direction was the ostensible […]