Abstract

A Healthy Debate

This article discusses a national health insurance program for the United States. Twelve years ago, Harris Wofford made healthcare an issue. Promising to fight for coverage for all, Wofford scored a surprise victory in a Pennsylvania Senate race -- inspiring speculation that a President George Bush could be beaten in 1992. Wofford handed the issue to Bill Clinton, who won the election but lost the war by proposing a plan that offered more in the way of bureaucracy than a clean break with the existing for-profit system. While the 2004 campaign has yet to experience a "Wofford moment," Dr. Norman Daniels of the Harvard School of Public Health says rising numbers of uninsured and underinsured should move healthcare to the fore as an issue. As Jim McDermott, a physician and the new president of Americans for Democratic Action, sees it, the plans of Howard Dean, John Edwards, John Kerry and Dick Gephardt "are all quite similar -- they each combine modest expansions of public sector programs such as Medicaid and [children's health programs] with private sector initiatives to encourage employers to provide health insurance for their employees." A separate study of the candidate proposals, done by The Commonwealth Fund (www.cmwf.org), says Dennis Kucinich's plan would cover all Americans, while those of Joe Lieberman, Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry and John Edwards would leave nine million to 19 million uninsured.