Sen. Graham Says Recent Heart Surgery Renewed His Interest in Health Reform
Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) said in a recent interview that his open heart surgery in January provided him with "a renewed and personal" commitment to a universal health care system in the United States, the AP/Florida Times-Union reports. Graham, who in February filed papers in Florida and Washington, D.C., to form an exploratory committee to run for president in 2004, said that he supports a universal health care system but added that the "most realistic way to achieve it politically is through incremental change," the AP/Times-Union reports. Graham said that he supports an expansion of the CHIP program to cover more uninsured children and their mothers, as well as more flexibility in income eligibility requirements for Medicaid. Graham said that his heart surgery "may have reinforced what has been a long, long concern of mine." On Jan. 31, Dr. Alan Speir and a team of physicians at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., replaced a defective valve in Graham's heart, performed a double bypass and closed a hole between the upper chambers of his heart. "Unlike many Americans, the Florida senator had access to a wealth of advice, was operated on by a team of first-rate physicians and treated at one of the nation's leading medical facilities," the AP/Times-Union reports (Lester, AP/Florida Times-Union, 3/31).
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.