Day: October 15, 2007

This is the second of four posts on the health care issue. For an overview of the various posts click here. There are two basic problems with enacting a single payer system in Pennsylvania. The first is that it is pretty much politically impossible this year. The second is that for constitutional and other reasons, a single payer system enacted in Pennsylvania won’t be as progressive as we would like it to be. Let me start with the first problem, briefly sketch the second one, and then come back to the first. Continue reading

To the extent that people with progressives inclinations are focused on the health insurance issue in Pennsylvania—and, right now, too many of us are not focused enough on it—they find themselves torn between two different plans. One is Governor Rendell’s Prescription for Pennsylvania (RxPA). The other is a single payer plan, put forward by the Health Care for All coalition. It is a strange debate. For one thing, most of us, on both sides of the debate, would like to ultimately move to some kind of single payer system with the costs of health care provided by progressive taxation, not by employer sponsored plans paid for by employers and employees. We differ only about whether it makes sense to push for a single payer system in Pennsylvania right now. It is strange, also, in that the proponents of single payer seem to be focusing more on denouncing those who support… Continue reading