What people forget about Edwards' IWR vote is that he was voting as a representative of the people of North Carolina and had to reflect their wishes. North Carolina is a red state, and no doubt during the fall of 2002 they, like most people who didn't know better, supported our dictator's efforts to plunge us into an unwinnable war.
Now that Edwards isn't saddled with having to please constituents, he can afford to speak out.
Elizabeth speaks out on John's health care proposal:
Conniff: On universal health care, I know your husband has a comprehensive plan. But why not single payer?
Edwards: Well, it has a single-payer component -- Medicare Plus. John thinks that he can get this bill passed immediately. This is one of those first 100 days bills. The insurance companies still have a market on this. We saw before if we move straight to single payer they will do everything in their power to block it. What happens with this, though, because there is a single-payer option people can take, and because they have so much less overhead, maybe they are providing better services for your money. We expect over time there will be a general move toward Medicare Plus. They can fight Congress, but it's really hard to fight every consumer's individual choice. And the competition from the private insurers might drive Medicare Plus to become more innovative, too.
The ultimate goal in any workable health care policy is to get the profit motive out of health care. The current system simply doesn't work anymore.
