Health care: Democrats start writing Rx

[babylonsister]

Health care: Democrats start writing Rx
Fulfilling the promise of 'universal health care,' that's the question.
Posted August 3, 2008 6:40 PM
The Swamp

by Mark Silva


Sen. Hillary Clinton wants her health care agenda included in the platform of the party that nominates Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency, and the platform committee of the Democratic National Committee has started playing with the wording.

The committee charged with crafting a platform for the Democrats agreed today in Cleveland to call health care "a shared responsibility between employers, workers, insurers, providers and government. All Americans should have coverage they can afford."

For the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, both Clinton and Obama have campaigned for "universal health care,'' though in the primary contest Clinton claimed that Obama's plans would leave a lot of people uncovered.

Michael Yaki, an Obama aide who directed the platform committee meetings this weekend, calls the language a recognition there may be more than one way to achieve the shared goal of universal coverage.

""There's no real consensus yet on which is the best health care reform to do other than we are committed to universality and we're committed to getting there," Yaki said. "We believe that as you make health care more affordable, people will be able to buy health care -- that's the basic principle. How we get there is a matter of the legislative process."

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/health_care_democrats_start_wr.html

[jwirr]

1. Okay, what about the research that Sen Edward Kennedy asked

his staff to begin so that they could introduce a bill as soon as the inauguration is over? He wanted input into his bill - does she?