The great health policy debate of 2010

Moderator: Good evening. Tonight I will be moderating a debate on the Health Care System Salvage and Coverage Overhaul Act of 2010 (Senate Bill 1, with companion legislation in the House). The bill is awaiting final congressional action, and the issue is considered so important that all 14 major television networks are carrying this debate live, along with many radio networks and at least 1,873 Internet/World Wide Web sites. As you know, S.B. 1 would provide immediate federal aid to the 1,000 hospitals and health care systems that are currently in bankruptcy; extend government-subsidized coverage to the estimated 90 million Americans who lack it; return to the federal government a wide range of health care regulatory and payment activities that had been transferred to the states; and prohibit certain types of health care enterprises and services, chiefly proprietary delivery and managed care systems. At the moment, the chances of its passage are too close to call. Arguments in support of S.B. 1 will be presented tonight by Sen. Joseph P. Kennedy II, Democrat of Massachusetts; arguments in opposition to the bill will be presented by Sen. George W. Bush, Republican of Texas; and the view of the Independent Party will be presented by former Kansas Senator Nancy Kassebaum, who also speaks as chairman of the National Nonpartisan Commission to Save American Health Care. Senator Kennedy will begin.