Guaranteed Healthcare

Ever since 1994, they've rolled over and played dead on health care!

I voted for Michael Dukakis in 1988 and Bill Clinton in 1992 in the hope that we would get universal health care, because it sure wasn't going to happen with Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush.

Of course, the late Lee Atwater's tactics saw to it that Dukakis' campaign went down in flames.  Rush Limbaugh and the Swift Boaters did the same to John Kerry in 2004.

I remember very well when President Clinton introduced the Health Security Act.  I thought, "at last - no worrying about how to pay for health care or prescriptions, and no more fears of being bankrupted by medical costs."  Of course, the Republicans, predictably, led by Bob Dole (R-Kansas) howled from Day One.  Limbaugh trumpeted against it for three hours every day over the airwaves.

We all know where it went from there.  The Republicans and their donors in the health insurance ("Harry and Louise") and pharmaceutical companies saw to it that it wouldn't even come to a floor vote.  I remember when Sen. Phil "America is a nation of whiners" Gramm (R-Texas) said "health care is deader than Elvis".

Some said that placing Hillary Clinton in charge of the health care reform programme is what killed it.  I disagree.  The Republicans would have killed it no matter who was in charge, simply because they do not want universal health care.

But what has really irked me since then has been the Democratic Party.  I am a registered Democrat and come from a long line of FDR/JFK Democrats.  My grandfather was a UAW steward.  I will vote straight Democratic in November.

However, when the GOP killed the Clinton plan in '94, President Clinton and the Democrats just hung their heads and turned with their collective tails between their legs.  The Republicans trumpeted their "victory" and, of course, manoeuvred it into taking control of Congress in the 1994 mid-term elections.

Since then, the Democrats have been timid (to put it kindly) on health care.  It's only now that they've started really talking about it again, and only Dennis Kucinich supported single-payer.  Barack Obama's plan is better than what we have now, but it still falls far, far short of single-payer.

My question is "WHY?" Are the Democrats so afraid of being labelled as "liberals" pushing "socialised medicine" that they're doing everything possible to circumvent that?

If so, that's a shame, and perhaps we need to transfer support to a party that would support single-payer, and, more importantly, FIGHT FOR IT!