The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) reintroduced his AmeriCare universal access to care proposal last week. He proposes to make a Medicare-like expanded federal insurance proposal available to all Americans. His plan, like Medicare, would still allow for private-sector delivery mechanisms, and would not directly eliminate private insurance, but ultimately it’s a single payer concept. This will not likely be a welcome proposal to the new Administration or the Senate leaders, who want to collaborate on proposal development together -- using Obama’s lead -- toward a more middle-of-the-road approach. It does no harm to have this bill on the table — it will have few co-sponsors. But, Mr. Stark, generally a friend of the College, deserves to be a player, even though most of the action seems so far to be in the Senate. That said, his AmeriCare approach may cause some colleagues to try to send him back to "reform school," but his proposal is far more reasonable than the single payer proposal Labor has been pushing, which almost eliminates private insurance. Neither Stark’s proposal nor the labor proposal have enough support to move on their own, but they add pressure to expand access — a good thing, assuming it’s accomplished reasonably.

< Back to Listings