President Barack Obama has pledged to fix this country's broken health-care system. The White House selected Des Moines as one of the places to host a regional summit on reform. Hundreds of people will gather at the Polk County Convention Center today to share ideas to move the country toward controlling health-care costs and extending coverage to more Americans.
Health reform is long overdue.
In the early 1900s, President Woodrow Wilson proposed a national health-care system modeled after plans in other countries. It didn't happen. Nor did it happen when President Harry Truman pushed for a tax-funded program. No luck for reform plans by Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, either.
One-hundred years later, the United States has a uniquely American system - which shouldn't even be called a "system," defined as a set of things working together.
America's "system" is a hodge-podge of thousands of different health-insurance plans.
More than 100 million Americans - from public employees to seniors - get their insurance paid by taxpayers. The rest of us get our insurance through employers, try to pay for insurance ourselves or go without - while paying taxes to fund others' care....
It's past time for health-care reform | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
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