Projo gets it right on health care
9:45AM ON
02/23/2008
BY
Dave Segal
The Projo has a staff editorial today on the Langevin-Shays health care plan:
Rep. Jim Langevin, a Democrat, has introduced a health-care plan to cover all Americans. Co-authored by Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, this is the first bipartisan proposal for universal coverage to emerge in the House. How does it sound? Pretty good.
Most interesting though is the Journal’s apparent support for a universal, single-payer system, modeled after Medicare. I hadn’t realized that this was their position.
Representative Langevin has a very interesting idea, but we find one thing he said curious. He said: “It’s not single payer. It’s not one size fits all.” It happens that the very successful and popular Medicare program, which covers the elderly and disabled, is mostly a single-payer plan. It is simple, and 98 percent of the money Medicare spends goes for health care, with only 2 percent siphoned off for administrative costs. Sometimes one size serves all.
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One Comment on “ Projo gets it right on health care ”
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:37PM
Beth Comery Says:
This is really encouraging. (Although I’m on board with Obama I find his health ‘plan’ a confusing mishmash.) Do you think the Langevin plan would find employers ending coverage asap and just opting into paying the tax? I have long felt that purchasing health insurance should no longer be the responsibility of an employer whose interests are not aligned with the person using the product. I didn’t know that this was in the works and it’s really exciting. Good on Langevin!
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