Prenant le contre-pied de la position de Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, un des économistes préférés des progressistes américains, estime que le Sénat se doit d'approuver le projet de loi sur la réforme du système de santé, qui représenterait à son avis «la plus grande expansion du filet de sécurité sociale depuis la création de Medicare». Je cite un extrait de sa chronique du jour en invitant un de nos collaborateurs à le traduire :
At its core, the bill would do two things. First, it would prohibit discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of medical condition or history: Americans could no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or have their insurance canceled when they get sick. Second, the bill would provide substantial financial aid to those who don't get insurance through their employers, as well as tax breaks for small employers that do provide insurance.
All of this would be paid for in large part with the first serious effort ever to rein in rising health care costs.
The result would be a huge increase in the availability and affordability of health insurance, with more than 30 million Americans gaining coverage, and premiums for lower-income and lower-middle-income Americans falling dramatically. That's an immense change from where we were just a few years ago: remember, not long ago the Bush administration and its allies in Congress successfully blocked even a modest expansion of health care for children.