New Republic Editorial Advocates Universal Health Coverage

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 15 Mar 2006 - 22:00 PDT

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Liberals should "be ambitious again," and the "place to begin is the very spot where liberalism left off a decade ago: Guaranteeing every American citizen access to affordable, high-quality medical care," a New Republic editorial states. Institute of Medicine studies suggest that thousands of people each year die because they lack health insurance, and "even those who don't suffer medical consequences face financial and emotional pain, as when seniors choose between prescriptions and groceries," the editorial states. "American society has tolerated this situation for a long time," and has done so, "at least in part, because the majority of working Americans still had private health insurance," the editorial says, adding, "But how many people can really count upon such security now?" Conservatives' "real hope for health care is to radically transform health insurance altogether, so that risk is gradually transferred away from large groups (i.e., the government and large employers) and onto individuals (i.e., you)." However, insurance "works best when large numbers of people share risk," according to the editorial, which continues, "Enacting the conservative agenda would unravel such arrangements, shifting the burden of paying for care back from the healthy to the sick." The editorial states that "providing health insurance happens to be a job the public sector has already proved it can do very well," adding that Medicare is "the most popular health insurance plan in the United States." It concludes, "Government isn't the best way to provide all Americans with health security. It's the only way. And it's time for liberals to say so openly" (New Republic, 3/10).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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