Obama Lays Out Health Plan

Congratulations Hillary Clinton and John McCain, you were right about health care all along. The moral victory is probably small comfort as President Obama unveiled the most detailed outline yet of his long-anticipated plan to overhaul the nation's health care system on Wednesday. In a two-page letter to senators working on health care reform, Obama indicated he was open to two elements of Clinton and McCain's 2008 health care proposals that he had opposed on the campaign trail—a mandate requiring individuals to purchase insurance and possibly limiting tax deductions on employee-based health care. Obama's letter pleased liberals by also calling for a public health insurance plan that Americans could turn to as an alternative to private insurance companies, a move opposed by the insurance industry.