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The Senate is on the cusp of some potentially important steps in our nation’s health care future.  Their current compromise calls for a “Medicare buy-in,” which would open Medicare to Americans 55-64, and a plan to allow the uninsured to take advantage of the Federal Employees Benefit Plan—the same system that federal employees and Members of Congress receive.

I believe that Medicare is a great place to start when it comes to health care reform, but I don’t think there should be a “buy-in.” Instead, we should simply expand this successful single-payer program to include people 55 and over.

For those under 55, we still need a public option.  Using the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan to provide coverage to the uninsured is an intelligent start because it provides federal employees with a range of options and will give people choices that they can afford.

Unfortunately, the usual suspects are threatening to stand in the way of progress.  Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, who previously threatened to filibuster the public option, has now said that he can’t support Medicare buy-in.  Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Ben Nelson calls the plan a “forerunner of single payer.”

Nelson is right.  The Medicare buy-in proposal is a first step in expanding our nation’s single-payer system to include all Americans. Many don’t realize that we already pay 47% of all medical bills through single-payer systems (including Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Indian Affairs).

These plans aren’t perfect.  But they are a good starting place.  Now that the debate is finally moving in the right direction, let’s not allow a few Senators to cut it off before it begins.

Anthony