Healthcare reform: tweedledum and tweedledee

David Leonhardt has always been fantastic with his economic reports in the NY Times. This latest one is no exception, and he clearly and quickly gets to the issue:

You might think, then, that a central goal of health reform would be to offer people more choice. But it isn’t.

Real choice is not part of the bills moving through the Democratic-led Congress; even if the much-debated government-run insurance plan was created, it would not be available to most people who already have coverage. Republicans, meanwhile, have shown no interest in making insurance choice part of a compromise they could accept. Both parties are protecting the insurers.

Leonhardt's comment that "both parties are protecting the insurers" worries me. A great deal. This "bispartisan" behavior is what Nader has often criticized as tweedledum and tweedledee :-(
He then writes that:

The best-known proposal for giving people more choice is the Wyden-Bennett bill, named for Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, who introduced it in the Senate in 2007.

Yea to Oregon and Wyden!

Meanwhile, news reports are flashing that Senator Ted Kennedy died.