AS WASHINGTON anxiously awaits the latest weekly change in the Clinton healthcare proposal, the sea of counterproposals grows steadily larger. Left, right, and center—nearly everyone with a word-processor has a plan to restructure the American health-care system.
On the left (a bit further to the left than the Clintons), Representative Jim McDermott (D., Wash.) and 88 colleagues are pressing for a “singlepayer system,” along Canadian lines. The “single payer” is, of course, the government, and the “system” is what we used to call national health insurance and, before that, socialized medicine. Under McDermott’s proposal the Federal Government would define a minimum benefits package, collect “premiums” (read: taxes), and pay the bills. A National Health Board would set and enforce a global budget.
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