Robert Reischauer on Single-Payer
“We cannot solve the problems that face Medicare without dealing with the broader problems that face health care in America,” said Robert Reischauer, president of the nonpartisan Urban Institute — a Washington think tank — and former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
…Reischauer at the Urban Institute “>said single-payer may ultimately hold the answers not just for Medicare but also covering the 45 million Americans now lacking health insurance.
“If push came to shove, I would want a single-payer system instead of the system we have now,” he said. “But the political obstacles to that are considerable.”
[via Don McCanne's Quote of the Day]
interesting proposition. I am still weighing the pluses and minuses. Here’s a link to a comment thread that blew up on my blog the other week – might be helpful (sort of):
http://drcharles.blogspot.com/2005/02/medical-bills-and-bankruptcy.html#comments
The perceived strength of this country is its weakness, when it comes to both health care and education. The culture of the individual and self-reliance by definition relegates those without means to perpetual second-class status in quality of education and access to quality health care.
If, just for these two critical aspects of society, we could instead recognize the short-and long-term benefit of making both universal health care and guaranteed educational opportunities for all citizens a functioning reality, our countries ability to not just compete but to lead the cause of freedom throughout the world would be enhanced.