EDWARDS' APPROACH TO SINGLE-PAYER: LET THE CITIZENS CHOOSE IT

NY TIMES - Former Senator John Edwards does not discount the possibility that his health care proposal, which would allow Americans to buy new government insurance packages modeled on Medicare, could evolve into a federalized system like those in Canada and many European countries. And if it does, Mr. Edwards said he would be just fine with that.

But Mr. Edwards, of North Carolina, emphasized in a 40-minute interview on health policy that the choice would be made not in Washington, but by consumers in an open marketplace where private insurance competes with government plans.

"American health consumers will decide which works best," Mr. Edwards said Wednesday afternoon while traveling through South Carolina on his campaign bus. "It could continue to be divided. But it could go in one direction or the other, and one of the directions is obviously government or single-payer. And I'm not opposed to that.". . .

Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation based in New York that researches health policy, said most countries with single-payer systems adopted them before private insurance took hold, and that none evolved through the marketplace. She agreed, however, that a Medicare-style plan would compete ferociously with private plans on price. . .

Mr. Edwards said he strongly considered a single-payer plan before announcing his initiative last February.

"I thought that there was a legitimate and strong argument for it," he said. "But I also believed that there are an awful lot of Americans who like the health care they have and are nervous about entirely government-controlled health care."