Walk Down Memory Lane

Kennedy-Kassebaum. The health care bill that was supposed to save us. When enacted, it would make health care more affordable, extend coverage to millions who would otherwise lose insurance when they lost their job.

Sound familiar?

Here is a brief flashback from 1996.

At a time when far too many Americans do not have health care insurance and even those who do are worried about losing that coverage when they change or lose their job, this is a step in the right direction.

We regret that the conference agreement does include provisions for 750,000 families to enroll in Medical Savings Accounts, but we suspect that this experiment will only validate concerns that MSAs will be used primarily by the wealthy and the healthy to the disadvantage of the overall insurance system

And:

This legislation would affect fewer than million Americans, but is of dubious value even to them since there's no cap on what the insurance companies can charge for portability Since the Clinton Health Plan went down the tubes two years ago, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen steadily to 40 million, and an additional 22 million people are inadequately insured.

Kennedy-Kassebaum has morphed in to other, better known monikers, including HIPAA and COBRA.

Wonder how long before the Obamacare tag drops off?

Maybe we should ask Joe "This is a BFD" Biden.