WASHINGTON - March 26 -
SHELDON H. LASKIN
Adjunct professor of law in the University of Baltimore's Graduate Tax Program, where he teaches state and local tax, Laskin said today: "One of the ironies of the health insurance reform bill is the two dramatically different positions the administration and Congress took on single-payer health insurance as contrasted with single-payer student loans, which were married together in the reconciliation process. Where the student loan program was concerned, Congress correctly abolished any role for the private sector in direct lending to students. In other words, Congress adopted single-payer student loans. But for healthcare, Congress retained for-profit insurance companies as the middleman in healthcare."