Monday, August 17, 2009
Six years ago, before he arrived in Washington, DC, Barack Obama was an outspoken proponent of creating a single-payer system for delivering health care in the United States. At an AFL-CIO conference, Obama told an audience of labor supporters: “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14% of its Gross National Product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody.”
Obama added during the same speech that creating a single-payer system wouldn’t happen anytime soon—at least not before Democrats first recaptured Congress and the White House.
By 2006, then a member of the U.S. Senate, Obama began to adjust his position, saying he supported a “debate” on single-payer, instead of unequivocally calling for its implementation.
In early 2008, with the presidential primary contest heating up, Obama said on his website that single-payer would still be his preferred choice—if the nation was starting from scratch with its health care system. “But Now We Need To Build On The System We Have.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Obama on Single Payer (YouTube)
The Move Away from Single-Payer (by David Sirota, Open Left)
Fact Check: Obama Consistent in His Position on Single Payer Health Care (BarackObama.com)
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