Healthcare in Bushland

Bush touted free-market Medicare yesterday in his speech to the AMA about the need for healthcare "reform". As part of his proposal, Bush outlined a new prescription plan which will be, according to the Washington Post, "a bonanza for the pharmaceutical and managed-care industries, both of which are huge donors to Republicans."

Bruce C. Vladeck, the official in charge of Medicare under the Clinton administration, says the Bush plan is "the kind of proposal the pharmaceutical companies would write if they were writing their own bill."

In the meantime, a new report has come out which indicates that 75 million of Americans have been without health insurance at some point within the last two years.

"The findings in this report should represent a sea change in the way we think about the uninsured," says Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, the sponsor of the study. "Now that almost one out of three non-elderly Americans experienced significant periods without health insurance, the uninsured problem is no longer simply an issue of altruism about other people, but it is also one of self-interest for us all."