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【medical-news】肯尼迪参议员: 2009年全民保险议案
November 18, 2008, 9:03 am
Ted Kennedy Readies Universal Health Bill for 2009
Posted by Sarah Rubenstein
Don’t let a malignant brain tumor or Max Baucus make you think Ted Kennedy has stepped aside on health reform.
Yesterday, Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is battling brain cancer, made his first appearance on Capitol Hill since he showed up in dramatic fashion to support a Medicare bill in July. His stay was brief, but Sen. Kennedy told reporters he would move ahead early next year with his own bill for universal health care, the Washington Post reports.
Kennedy’s announcement comes after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus (D., Mont.) released his own big plan for health reform last week. Kennedy has called Baucus’s plan a “major contribution to the debate.” But Kennedy, long a leader on health issues, also “has had a head start,” as the WaPo put it, because he told his staff to start work on legislation months ago.
“We’re hopeful this will be a prime item on the agenda,” Kennedy said yesterday, according to the Boston Globe. Asked whether he expected President-elect Obama to sign a health-care bill early in his term, Kennedy, a prominent Obama supporter, responded, “Yes.”
Still, the WaPo said some folks in Obama’s circle “have begun to view expanded coverage as a longer-term goal.”
Joe Antos, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, noted in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that the financial crisis will be a big barrier. “You have everybody gearing up and trying to make noise and saying, ‘Don’t forget us.’ And health is right there with everybody else,” he said. “They are trying to create political space next year for their issue, when there is going to be precious little political space to be had.” [标签:content1][标签:content2]
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-06-20 23:45
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