Senate Democrats Take Historic Step on Health Care Reform

On June 26th the Wisconsin State Senate passed Healthy Wisconsin, a sweeping health care reform plan that will guarantee quality health care for every resident of the state for less than we are paying now.  In the days following the vote, some journalists and pundits immediately wrote it off.  It would not matter, they said, because the right-wing leadership of the Assembly would kill it.  This knee-jerk cynicism missed the point.  The Senate’s action matters a lot as a milestone in the movement for health care reform.  The Progressives States Network, a national organization that tracks progressive public policy in all 50 states, immediately hailed Healthy Wisconsin as “the boldest and most comprehensive health care plan covering all residents to pass any legislative body in the nation.” It is “hands down the boldest and most comprehensive health care reform that we’ve seen from any state.  It would do what every state and the federal government have failed to do so far: cover all residents.”

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