Updated below
If all goes well, in a couple of hours the House of Representatives will pass a bill that essentially declares that all American citizens have a right to health care. This action will sit alongside FDR's establishment of Social Security:
". . .we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age."Universal health care was first suggested by Theodore Roosevelt: "in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt’s insurgent Progressive Party included a health insurance plank in its campaign platform."
Finally, today, we will have reached the goal TR first enunciated in 1912. As Jim Fallows says:
For now, the significance of the vote is moving the United States FROM a system in which people can assume they will have health coverage IF they are old enough (Medicare), poor enough (Medicaid), fortunate enough (working for an employer that offers coverage, or able themselves to bear expenses), or in some other way specially positioned (veterans; elected officials)... TOWARD a system in which people can assume they will have health-care coverage. Period.It's something the Representatives and Senators who voted for it can be proud of.
UPDATE
And, by heaven, they did it. Begone, rescission! No, no, pre-existing conditions! College kids, you're still covered!
I mostly had hope, but seeing it actually done is still amazing.
Posted by Linkmeister at March 21, 2010 04:42 PM | TrackBack