全民医疗保险: 艾德华·肯尼迪最遗憾的错误之一

信息：周六美东时间上午10点到下午1点，CBS将直播艾德华·肯尼迪的葬礼，中间会回顾他的一生，还有肯尼迪家族的故事。

毫无疑问，刚刚去世的艾德华·肯尼迪参议员是当今最成功，最有成绩的参议员之一。但是，他也曾犯下致命错误。

艾德华·肯尼迪亲口说过，他最遗憾的错误之一，就是在1970年代初期，过于激进，没有支持当时共和党尼克松总统的全民医疗保险提案。他承认那是解决全民医疗保险的历史最佳时刻。

从那时起，到克林顿和民主党执掌总统和国会两院，再到奥巴马时代，所有的全民医疗保险提案都从当年尼克松提案退步了。即便如此还是不能达成协议。艾德华·肯尼迪几十年的努力仍然没有结果。

他后悔，那时认为尼克松提案做的还不够，政府还应该做的更多更好。可惜，后来他认识到当时太固执了，尼克松提案是可能达到的最好方案了。时光错过不再来，他也只能遗憾终生了。

希望国会议员们有智慧有能力，在不久的将来制订一个比较好的全民医疗保险方案。

In 1971, President Nixon unveiled a plan to expand healthcare to nearly all Americans through their employers, with the federal government subsidizing insurance premiums for the poor. The plan was strikingly similar to many that Democrats would put forth in subsequent years. But in the early 1970s, the then 39-year-old senator from Massachusetts wanted more. He stubbornly held out for a straight up national healthcare system paid for through general revenues and Social Security taxes.

"It's really a partnership between the administration and insurance companies," Kennedy griped in 1971 about the Nixon plan. "It's not a partnership between patients and doctors of this nation."

In the end, neither the Nixon plan nor the Kennedy proposal passed, and Kennedy would wonder, decades later, if he had missed his only chance to install a plan — even an imperfect one — that would give every American the chance to get health insurance.

"We should have jumped on that," Kennedy said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/02/20/a_towering_record_painstakingly_built/

Meanwhile, Kennedy renewed his efforts for national health insurance. While proposing a single-payer solution favored by organized labor, he also negotiated with the Nixon administration on their preferred employer-based, HMO-oriented solution. The two sides could not come to agreement, and Kennedy would later regret not seizing upon the Nixon plan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy#1970s