Hot on the heels of (deep breath) Pete Stark, Hillary Clinton, Tom Vilsack, Gavin Newsome, and Russ Feingold, John Kerry just emerged with his own universal health care plan. It's largely a reprise of his election efforts -- get the government to cover some catastrophic cases, allow Americans to buy into the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, extend Medicaid to children, and mandate universal coverage by 21012 -- but it's testament to his belief that health care is returning to the agenda that he's seeking a revival, writing the plan up in a Boston Globe op-ed and proposing new legislation. It's a bit of a tough road to hoe for Kerry, though, as fellow 2008 aspirant Mitt Romney just enacted a near-universal plan in Kerry's state of Massachusetts, and while Ted Kennedy was deeply involved in that effort, Kerry wasn't. Nevertheless, it's always positive to have one more option on the table and Kerry's plan is about as inventive and worthy as incrementalism gets.
