Dodd's New Bait-and-Switch on Healthcare

It is one thing to support reform of our national healthcare system. But I bet most Americans would balk at the creation of a national healthcare program. Yet in a moment of candor this weekend, Senator Chris Dodd, who is steering Democrats’ legislation through the HELP Committee, suggested that this was their long-term goal.

It is one thing to support reform of our national healthcare system. It is another thing to support national healthcare programs that provide for the poor, handicapped, and elderly. But I bet most Americans would balk at the creation of a national healthcare program. Yet in a moment of candor this weekend, Senator Chris Dodd, who is steering Democrats’ legislation through the HELP Committee, suggested that this was their long-term goal. According to an L.A. Times story on the political challenges facing Democrats’ efforts at health care reform, Dodd stated, “If this were easy, it would have been done decades ago.  Sixty years, the effort has been made to have a national healthcare program in this country.” Senate Democrats at HELP and Finance are discussing a variety of healthcare reform proposals.  They are contemplating different ways to expand and reform existing programs.  But what is this “national healthcare program” Senator Dodd is talking about? Today, the Democratic proponents of President Obama's healthcare initiative insist that their endgame is not a single-payer national healthcare program. There is plenty of evidence, however, that the proposed government option is a bait-and-switch that will lead eventually to single-payer.  Secretary Sebelius, Senator Feingold, and others have suggested that over time private health insurance should be supplanted by universal government coverage.  Even President Obama was for single-payer, before he was against it. As the HELP markup continues, perhaps one of Senator Dodd’s Republican colleagues can ask him to explain in greater detail what he means by a national healthcare program.