From The Washington Post
By E.J. Dionne Jr.

When Bill Clinton’s health-care proposal was foundering in the summer of 1994, a group of senators suggested that the administration put off trying to get universal coverage and insist instead on insuring all children. The idea was to make, at least, a down payment on reform.

The White House said no and pressed on with its doomed effort to get a bigger bill. The Republicans won control of Congress in the fall. It wasn’t until 1997, thanks to the unlikely duo of Sens. Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, that a children’s health-care program was finally passed.

One of the clearest signals President-elect Barack Obama has sent is his determination to learn from the Clinton years, particularly from the former president’s failures on health care.

When Tom Daschle, Obama’s pick to be secretary of health and human services, returned to the Senate last week for his first round of confirmation hearings, he offered a long list of criticisms that others had directed at the original health-care reform effort. This time, he said, would be different.

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