Al Franken, America’s iconic liberal comedian, is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota and all seems to be going well. He’s been quite successful in bringing in campaign monies although critics say it’s mostly from out of the state. In any event I took a look at his health care position and found it to be, well, reasonable. While he’s a single-payer sort of guy, he still seems to have an open mind.
Al says,
“We need to get to universal health care. A single-payer system clearly would save the most in administrative costs, but there are other ways to achieve universal coverage. Every other industrialized country in the world does have universal health care, but they don’t all use the traditional single-payer model. We should work together to develop an American model that reflects our culture and our history.
With no hint of sarcasm or irony it sounds a little un-Franken like in some ways. But in Minnesota, where wrestlers can be governors, why can’t a comedian who wants universal health care be a U.S. Senator? At least he may add some laughs in what has been up until now a pretty moribund political debate.
