The president's proposals, like other plans recently introduced in Massachusetts and California, maintain the pre-eminent role of the nation's private health insurance industry to finance health care coverage for the majority of Americans. But critics say there is little evidence that without a dramatic overhaul of America's expensive health system, care will be provided to the estimated 47 million Americans without health insurance and tens of millions more who are underinsured.

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't provide its citizens universal health care coverage. But despite growing dissatisfaction with the current system and skyrocketing medical costs, politicians at the state and national level seem unwilling to challenge the current system, defended by wealthy insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Between The Lines spoke with Dr. Oliver Fein, professor of Medicine at Cornell University and chairman of the New York Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. He critiques the president's reform proposals and explains why his organization advocates a single-payer universal system.

To contact Physicians for a National Health Program, call (312) 782-6006 or visit their website at www.pnhp.org

Related links:

• "Bush to outline misguided health care proposal in State of the Union address," Economic Policy Institute, Jan. 23, 2007

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