President Obama apparently was mistaken when he insisted during the town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday that "I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter."
Single-payer denotes a system, similar to that used in Canada, in which a single entity — the federal government — would pay for all health costs. It is highly controversial, partly because of its association with high costs and suspect levels of healthcare.
Obama sought to assure his town hall audience that he never favored such a plan, saying it would be too disruptive given the historical pattern of private healthcare coverage in America.
Shortly after Obama made that remark, however, House Republicans circulated a video from "a few years back," when Obama, speaking to an AFL-CIO meeting, stated: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare plan."
The rather shaky video from that event can be accessed here:
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