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Monday, July 11, 2005

Health Care Is A Right

Just yesterday I claimed that calls for “single payer” universal health care had little hope for success in the United States, however sensible and urgent they may be. I proposed (without offering up anything in the way of useful details, of course) that the best way of going about nudging the US health care system in the direction of something like Canadian sanity would probably be through ongoing expansion and reform of Medicare instead. Anyway, despite all that it should go without saying that nothing would please me more than to be proved wrong and find a powerful coalition of state governments, professional medical associations, strapped modest businesspeople, unions, and such organizing to demand single payer. Here’s a link to an AP story about some folks making appealing, plausible noises and plans in this general vein at the moment. Too early for hope, but just the right time for helpful support.

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