"No One in America Should Go Broke Because They Get Sick"

"This is what reform is about. If you don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform. If you have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care you need. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. You will not be waiting in any lines. This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health care decisions but you and your doctor—not government bureaucrats, not insurance companies."

In The New York Times, President Barack Obama explains why America's health-care system must change.

However, Ralph Nader, interviewed on Democracy Now!, calls instead for "full Medicare for everyone," regardless of age.

Rick Perlstein in The Washington Post traces the paranoid style of right-wing politics in the 1950s and 1960s, and Nancy J. Altman in the Los Angeles Times depicts the conservative opposition to Franklin Roosevelt's creation of Social Security in the 1930s.

But Paul Begala in The Washington Post notes the compromises that Roosevelt made to argue that today's health-care reforms may not at first be the ideal overhaul.