POLICY/POLITICS: Up at The Grauniad

My father would rolling in his grave if he wasn't still alive. I, yup the guy who voted for Thatcher twice, have been given a column on the venerable web site of The Guardian--the paper of the wet liberal lefty chattering classes in the UK. I'm up explaining the Democratic Presidential candidate's health plans or lack of them.

This past week saw the first debate among the Democratic candidates for president about what has become the most important domestic issue in American politics: the country's failed healthcare system. To serious students of policy, America's healthcare is the most obvious feature of its society and economy that needs correction. However, to serious students of American politics, reforms to the healthcare system are the most difficult problems. Case in point: the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994 in large part because of opposition to the Clinton healthcare plan.

The problem is that healthcare system reform will necessitate controlling the system's huge and growing costs - currently 17% of GDP in the US against less than 10% in most of Europe. But those reforms will need to cover the 45 million people who now lack insurance, as well as reassure middle America that they will keep their coverage, and not upset upper-income Americans and the senior lobby who are generally happy with their doctors. And of course then there is the problem of dealing with a powerful $2,000bn industry which has little interest in seeing its bumper profits diverted.