San Francisco Chronicle
February 20, 2005
Medicare not easy to salve
By David Lazarus
“We cannot solve the problems that face Medicare without dealing with the broader problems that face health care in America,” said Robert Reischauer, president of the nonpartisan Urban Institute — a Washington think tank– and former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
…Reischauer at the Urban Institute said single-payer may ultimately hold the answers not just for Medicare but also covering the 45 million Americans now lacking health insurance.
“If push came to shove, I would want a single-payer system instead of the system we have now,” he said. “But the political obstacles to that are considerable.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/20/BUG27BDFVP1.DTL&type=business
Comment: If more individuals of the caliber of Robert Reischauer join with him in speaking up, the political obstacles will melt away.