The Health Care Speech Obama Should Give--But Won't

My fellow Americans,

I am speaking to you at a moment of crisis for our nation.  We have a choice to make: Whether we, citizens of the richest and most developed country in the world, are going to claim quality health care for each and all of us as a common good; or whether we are going to continue to see it apportioned on the basis of life circumstances, the ability to pay, and the luck of the genetic draw.

This choice involves fundamental differences both of public policy and philosophy. There are those who deny that as members of American society we have any positive... More

Why is the Public Option in Danger of Stalling?

AFTER BELATEDLY expressing his post-election support for a publicly run health insurance program “similar to Medicare,” President Obama continues to say that he “won’t insist on it.” How can we explain the disparity between huge public support for a Medicare-like option that polls show and the fact that so few with power in Washington will stand up for it? 

This is particularly puzzling in the face of the [June 12-16, 2009] NY Times/CBS poll that documented an astonishing 72 percent of respondents favoring ”a government administered health insurance plan—something like M... More