Healthcare Bill Needs Reforms

Healthcare Bill Needs Reforms

John Nichols explains why he is excited about the possibilities for progressive reform to the healthcare bill.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Nation columnist John Nichols and National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill discuss reform of the healthcare bill on Bill Moyers Journal. O’Neill is frustrated by the sacrifices forced upon the women’s movement for the bill and wants to see leadership from Obama. Nichols is excited about the prospects for reform and says that the only mistake progressives could make is to "defend this bill as is."

Nichols briefly discusses a proposal set forth by Democratic Representative Alan Grayson from Florida, which would allow citizens to buy in to Medicare at cost. The proposal is promising, Nichols says, because Grayson’s bill has eighty cosponsors and his online petition has received new signatures at the rate of one every six seconds.

"Obama is a cautious president," Nichols says. "It is time to go out and make him do the things that need to be done, and that’s an on organizing task."

 

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x