I think some of us feel powerless against the influential lobbying efforts of insurance and drug companies against health care reform. Some voters have little hope of change, some support proposals of the 3 presidential candidates, while others claim a single payer system is the only realistic reform. The follow excerpt is from a pro single payer op ed piece from December 2007:
By DAVID U. HIMMELSTEIN and STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER
The New York Times | Op-Ed
December 15, 2007
IN 1971, President Nixon sought to forestall single-payer national health insurance by proposing an alternative. He wanted to combine a mandate, which would require that employers cover their workers, with a Medicaid-like program for poor families, which all Americans would be able to join by paying sliding-scale premiums based on their income.
Nixon’s plan, though never passed, refuses to stay dead. Now Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama all propose Nixon-like reforms. Their plans resemble measures that were passed and then failed in several states over the past two decades.