Abstract
Health care reform is back on the national agenda, but there is a good chance the results will be different this time around. Nationwide initiatives for universal health insurance began in earnest with Harry Truman’s 1945 effort (proposed to be financed through Social Security taxes) and have resurfaced periodically ever since. While each attempt has its own history, echoes of “socialized medicine” helped sink them all. Today, however, less ambitious, less threatening and more bipartisan models for reform are emerging from several states. The passage of a plan in Massachusetts signed by Republican Governor (and presidential aspirant) Mitt Romney on April 12, 2006, all but ensures that the issue will be on the front burner in the 2008 presidential election. Potential Republican candidates such as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Newt Gingrich, as well as other prominent Republicans like Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have also helped focus attention on health care reform. Because conservatives as well as liberals are now talking about health care reform, the odds that something will happen are higher than ever.