47 millions of us are without medical insurance. For everyone at Moveon , health care for all is the number one priority on the domestic agenda. Indeed, this is true for Americans as a whole. Monday's NY Times ran Robert Pear's thoughtful article of how lack of health insurance has begun to poison middle class life in the US. One of the great mysteries to me has been the lack of traction and interest among elected officials for universal health insurance.

You may have read, as I did, in Friday’s New York Times that Americans want health care for all, that they want it to be affordable and that they are willing to pay for it. The NYT poll, which confirms an earlier one done by Pew, (Also see this Q Poll ) have been talked up & written up by progressive labor oriented observers like Jonathan Tasini (scroll down to March 2,).

None the less, as one of the premier health insurance advocacy groups Health Care Now, points out, presidential candidates have not been lining up to support single-payer universal health insurance. The issue national health insurance should come before the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO beginning March 6th says long-time labor writer Harry Kelber. . Will they take action?

My guess is they will not. As part of a Moveon delegation, I met with my Congress Member, Nydia Velazquez a few weeks ago. She is as progressive a representative as any lefty like me could ask for. When we asked her whether she would support either of the two universal health insurance proposals, she said no. The two bill in Congress right now are: HR 676 introduced by Rep. John Conyers which has 59 sponsors and “Medicare For All” was introduced by John Dingell and (in the Senate) by Ted Kennedy . Neither Nydia V. nor John Hall is co-sponsors of either. (When I asked Hall’s press guy why not, I got no reply.).

Haunted perhaps by the 1994-GOP surge which doomed the last great effort (Do you remember Harry & Louise?), progressive Democrats seem shy of another draw-down with the insurance industry. Instead, it seems to me elected representatives are mostly wedded piece-meal efforts which will expand health-care coverage within the existing patch-work quilt of Medicare, Medicaid, and employment-based coverage. How can we put the universal single payer plan that most citizens agree we want and need on the agenda?

In the absence of national action, states are trying to improvise. In Mass., residents are "required" to purchase health insurance although the costs of coverage may be high and the quality low. In Illinois, the Governor has just proposed universal health insurance with subsidies for lower income families.

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