Opinion: Really Cold Copy: From Kaisercare to Hillarycare

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Way back in October 2007, when the unseasoned Barack Obama was polling far behind New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, I compiled a brief history of Times editorials on healthcare reform. At the time, the public conversation on expanding insurance was centered on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempts to cover the state’s then-6.5 million uninsured. The Times’ editorial board supported the concept of expanded coverage for California (as it does now for the country) but took issue with the governor’s proposal to finance the state’s new insurance system with lottery revenue.

Click here to read the Cold Copy. The editorials go as far back as 1918, when The Times published alarmist anti-socialist screeds against reform (everything old is new again, you could say).

-- Paul Thornton