Healthcare: Making Strange Bedfellows!

Healthcare in this country is becoming an embarassment
and should not be an issue in America the richest nation
in the history of the world. It is such an issue that now
even bitter enemies are joining forces to end this fiasco.



An unusual new coalition of big employers, labor unions and politicians united Wednesday to push for "quality, affordable" healthcare for all Americans by 2012. The proposal adds to growing pressure on Congress, President Bush and statehouses across America where governors including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger are calling for a major overhaul of health insurance coverage.

The idea united some bitter adversaries Wednesday and indicates that there is business support for change.Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest private employer, joined with one of its biggest critics, the Service Employees International Union.AT&T Inc. signed on along with its major union. Silicon Valley is represented by chip maker Intel Corp. So are both major political parties.

"The fact they even got to the same table to talk about this in the first place is pretty amazing," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a national nonprofit organization that represents large concerns such as Exxon Mobil Corp., IBM Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co. The proposal was short of specifics but had four broad themes: universal health coverage by 2012, better preventive care and disease management; more efficient healthcare delivery, and cost-sharing by workers, employers and governments.

The initiative, dubbed Better Health Care Together, also guarantees that healthcare will take on an even larger role in the 2008 presidential campaign."This is yet another indication that, save for Iraq, healthcare will be near or at the top of the political agenda for 2008," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a group that advocates overhauling healthcare.

The chief executive of Wal-Mart urged quick action. "Unfortunately, the current healthcare system doesn't work for many Americans," H. Lee Scott Jr. said at a news conference in Washington. "We need to change the current system and we need to start now."



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