The HCAN Con

IN PLACE of single-payer, HCAN claims to offer a "bold new solution" to the health care crisis--a hybrid system of three options: keep your private insurance plan, pick a new private insurance plan, or join a government-financed public plan. HCAN further calls for tougher regulation of health insurance companies to "quash greed once and for all." In fact, there's nothing bold or new about HCAN's plan. David Himmelstein, cofounder of Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), calls the HCAN proposal "a superficially attractive health reform that has a long record of failure--akin to prescribing a placebo for a serious illness when effective treatment is available."