A healthcare system for all Americans has its roots in the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, received unprecedented support from his successor, Harry Truman, and was a critical issue in the campaign of Bill Clinton, who was unable to deliver on his promise.
As yet another president makes the subject a priority, and the major issues of cost, access and the government's involvement are debated at kitchen tables and in Congress, the National Constitution Center hosts a discussion on healthcare with former Senators Rick Santorum and Harris Wofford.
Bio
Stefan Frank
Stefan Frank is the Director of National Programs at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA, an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history, and its contemporary relevance.
Since joining the Center in 2006, Stefan has developed an aggressive outreach program and nonpartisan forum for all issues related to public affairs, free speech, democracy and the rule of law. He has produced hundreds of public events with internationally known historians, politicians, journalists, and other various experts, to provide substantive conversations about key issues facing the nation.
Before arriving at the Center, Stefan was the Fellow of Media and Public Policy for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. There he assisted in the production of the weekly National Public Radio program Justice Talking and its educational arm "Justice Learning," an online resource for engaging high school students in informed political discourse.
Stefan received his MLA from The University of Pennsylvania and his BFA in Film Studies from Syracuse University. Between degrees he worked in Los Angeles, CA as an executive developing and producing feature films, documentaries, and episodic television.
Mark Preston
As CNN's political editor, Mark Preston helps oversee the network's day-to-day and long-term political coverage. He also serves as an on-air political analyst on CNN/US, CNN International, HLN, and CNN.com. In 2008, Preston won a Peabody Award for the network's coverage of the Presidential Primary Campaigns and Debates.
Additionally, he received Syracuse University's i-3 Mirror Award for the YouTube presidential debates, an EPpy Award for Best News/Politics Blog, and an Emmy Award for CNN's Midterm Election Night programming. Prior to joining CNN, Preston was a senior staff writer for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum served as the Congressman from Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District from 1991 to 1995 and as the Commonwealth's junior United States Senator from 1995 to 2007. From 2001 to 2007, Senator Santorum served as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the third highest ranking member of the Republican leadership and the highest ranking Pennsylvanian to serve in Washington in over three decades.
While representing Pennsylvania in Washington, Santorum spearheaded the passage of a wide-range of legislation such as the landmark Welfare Reform Act, Partial-Birth Abortion Act, Health Savings Accounts, and the Iran Freedom and Support Act. He served on several important committees, including the Senate Armed Services Committee for 8 years and the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees all healthcare legislation, for 6 years.
Santorum is now a Senior Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and President of Mpower Media.
Senator Harris Wofford
Harris Wofford represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1991 to 1994. He brought universal health care into the national spotlight by making it a core issue of his campaign and Senate service. He served as Gov. Casey's Secretary of Labor and Industry.
He was president of Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, PA from 1970 to 1978. In the 1960s, Wofford served as President Kennedy’s Special Assistant for Civil Rights, and worked closely with Sargent Shriver in organizing the Peace Corps. Later he served as the Peace Corps’ Special Representative to Africa and its Associate Director. In 1949 he and his wife Clare had a fellowship in India to study Gandhi, after which they wrote the book India Afire. Wofford became an advisor to Martin Luther King in the 1950s after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
After Rick Santorum defeated him in 1994, Wofford was appointed by President Clinton to be CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, the Senior Corps, Service-Learning and other national service programs. He is the author five books, including Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties.
Health care reform proposal by obama is a very modest one. Make it a requirement for all to buy healthcare insurance. It will cover everyone and then insurance companies cannot deny insurance for preexisting conditions. I do not see how such a modest proposal for reform can be called as ' socialism '
The fact that this man and his ilk are accepted as deserving of a public forum says a great deal about the extreme degraded state of society in the United States. This degradation is no doubt due a failure to educate beyond vocational applications.
I wouldn't hold my breath. As much as I yearn for a socialist awakening in the U.S., there is very little that does not support corporatism in this country.
I am sure that he is right. We are heading for a more socialist America and it can't come too soon for me. The era of corporatism and profits above people must end. I am proud to be a liberal. I am happy that we have Social Security and Medicare. I hope to live long enough to see Medicare for everyone. Santorum and his kind are dinosaurs and will fade into the obscurity that they so richly deserve. They can take their "fear-mongering" and endless wars on nouns with them.
member. 
