Democrats gear up new push for universal healthcare

Fourteen years after a failed attempt, Democrats are launching an aggressive push for universal healthcare. The staffs of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), who heads the Senate's Health, Education Pensions and Labor Committee, are already meeting with key healthcare experts. In addition, Senate aides plan to meet with doctors' groups, insurance companies, business associations, and other key players in reforming healthcare. Their goal is to have the outlines of a healthcare proposal by the end of 2008 that can be introduced in the opening days of the next president's administration.