Ron Wyden's Healthy Americans act got two new cosponsors today, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. That brings the grand total up to 14 -- 7 Democrats, 7 Republicans. If you wonder why I give the legislation as much attention as I do, it's because, right now, it's the only vehicle for health reform that comes complete with a political strategy and a bipartisan crew of interested Senators. At the end of the day, the problem of health reform is really a problem of the Senate. Nobody knows how to get to 60. And Wyden isn't anywhere close. But he's getting the relevant players involved and invested in a concrete piece of legislation and an actual negotiation process. That's grunt work that wasn't being done in 1994, and it's important.
