R
At 10:56 PM 11/14/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>[From ABC News "The Note"]
>
>Gore Supports Single-Payer
>
>Washington, November 14 - On a stage in a synagogue on New York's Upper
>West Side Wednesday night, Gore made this stunning announcement to several
>hundred people in response to a question from the event's host.
>
>Gore suggested he was hesitant to reveal his position at this forum — but
>then declared that he had come "reluctantly" to the conclusion that
>single-payer is the best solution to the nation's health insurance crisis.
>
>He offered no details for what kind of system he would favor, or how he
>would propose transitioning to such a massive change.
>
>Afterward, a Gore spokesman said that the former Vice President would
>offer more specifics in the future for what kind of plan he envisions.
>
>Long supported by the left, single-payer plans involve all money spent on
>health care being collected by some public agency or trust fund, which
>then pays for comprehensive coverage, delivered privately and publicly,
>for all citizens.
>
>Issues of taxation, quality of care, availability of care, and medical
>innovation are all implicated in such a system, with Canada's plan often
>used as the basis for understanding and analysis.
>
>For Gore, this represents a shocking switch. Although many of the people
>who worked with Hillary Clinton and Ira Magaziner on the Clinton health
>care plan at the start of the Clinton/Gore Administration were
>intellectually and morally sympathetic to single-payer, it was rejected as
>being simply too radical and too big a political target.
>
>Even Bill Bradley, who frequently charged Gore during the 2000
>presidential primary with being timid on finding health care solutions,
>disappointed many of his own supporters by not coming out for single-payer.
>
>And if Gore is a presidential candidate for 2004, this gambit would allow
>him to outflank on the left even Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, whose calls for
>massive new spending on health care so far do not include support for
>single-payer.
>
>Gore in the past actually has rejected single-payer. In fact, Ralph Nader
>in 2000 made criticism of Gore for not supporting single payer into a
>major platform plank. ...
>
>Time and place matter in politics, of course, and if Gore had come out in
>favor of single-payer at any time before November 2000, when he was Vice
>President or a Veep running for president, this would have been gigantic news.
>
>Now, in this strange situation that Gore finds himself in vis-a-vis the
>media, sometimes he says things that are really important and interesting,
>but they don't get much coverage. As another example, consider his speech
>on civil liberties in Delaware, which got barely a ripple in the press
>despite his scathing criticism of the Bush Administration.
>
>The fact that Gore came out for single-payer on W. 83rd Street, in the
>midst of his book tour, in front of (as best The Note can tell) only two
>members of the media, means that perhaps it will drift away. ...
>
><http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/TheNote.html>
>
>Carl
>
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