Schwartz: Single-Payer is Focus, May Run For Senate

A Congresswoman from Philadelphia says she is mulling over a possible run for the US Senate in 2010. Democratic Allyson Schwartz says she's backing health care reform efforts, but argues any changes will come from within the existing framework. She says a single-payer system simply "isn't going to happen." She goes on to say, “Let me be very clear about this. President Obama, Congress-not that there aren't some people who want to see single-payer, they think that that's the right thing to do. What that actually means is a question. But I can tell you, it's not where the president is. It's not where we're going to end up.” Schwartz told the Harrisburg Press Club that lawmakers will keep Medicare, Medicaid and other safety net programs in place, and that employer-based health care will likely remain the primary source of coverage for most Americans. But she says she feels Congress and President Obama will make changes over the next few years, and is confident there's a real movement to expand and improve coverage. Schwartz says she hasn't yet decided whether she'll enter the 2010 Democratic primary.