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Harkin pushes single-payer as health care solution
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Jun 16, 2009 06:36pm |
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| Category | Statement |
| Author | Matthew Clark |
| News Date | Sunday, June 7, 2009 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin acknowledged the often frustrating gap between popular sentiment and government action at an AARP event on Saturday, saying he has long supported a national single-payer health care system but has never “had the votes” to pass it in Washington.
“There are a lot of things the majority of Americans support that Congress won’t do,” Harkin said. “If I had my way, we’d have a single-payer system, but I’m not a dictator.”
Harkin said he has supported a single-payer system since 1991 and hopes the call for one from voters has now reached “critical mass” and will compel other legislators to support such a plan.
Harkin joined other experts gathered in North Liberty on Saturday for an AARP-sponsored forum on health reform. They concluded that a major overhaul of the federal health care system is needed and this may finally be the year it happens.
“This is no longer a theoretical thing,” AARP national president Jennie Chin Hansen said. “It’s the urgency of this eminent crisis that will drive us to really looking at an important solution.”
Other panelists included Susan Curry, dean of the Iowa College of Public Health; Cathy Glasson, Iowa president of the SEIU; Troy Vincent, executive director of Living Healthy America; and Harkin. |
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