Rationing Healthcare, Step by Step

Hoar, William P., The New American

ITEM: The Associated Press for August 9 touted the healthcare plank in the Democratic Party platform: "Democrats shaped a set of principles Saturday that commits the party to guaranteed health care for all, heading off a potentially divisive debate and edging the party closer to the position of Barack Obama's defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton....

"Obama, soon to be the Democratic nominee, has stopped short of proposing to mandate health coverage for all. He aims to achieve something close to universal coverage by making insurance more affordable and helping struggling families pay for it. Advisers to Obama and Clinton both told the party's platform meeting they were happy with the compromise, adopted without opposition or without explanation as to how health care would be guaranteed.

"In return for the guarantee, activists dropped a tougher platform amendment seeking a government-run, single-payer system and another amendment explicitly holding out Clinton's plan as the one to follow. The party now declares itself 'united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care.'"

ITEM: Columnist Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times for August 11, comments: "Can Democrats deliver on that commitment? In principle, it should be easy. In practice, supporters of health care reform, myself included, will be hanging on by their fingernails until legislation is actually passed.

"What's easy about guaranteed health care for all? For one thing, we know that it's economically feasible: every wealthy country except the United States already has some form of guaranteed health …

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Publication information: Article title: Rationing Healthcare, Step by Step. Contributors: Hoar, William P. - Author. Magazine title: The New American. Volume: 24. Issue: 19 Publication date: September 15, 2008. Page number: 41+. © 2009 American Opinion Publishing, Inc. COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale Group.

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