Wednesday, July 22, 2009

First, as lawmakers try to come up with a viable health care plan, we’ll hear from people advocating lesser-known ideas that have picked up traction nationally. As a national health care plan moves though Congress, we’ll consider some of the plans being debated. Jacob Hacker believes people should have the right to a government-run, government-chartered insurance company. Without that government-run company, Hacker argues, there’s not enough pressure on the insurance companies to really drive down costs and improve quality. Hacker is a professor at Yale University at the author of two books on health care reform. Then, for millions of women, the books they read (and re-read) as young girls helped them become the women they are today. Lizzie Skurnick writes the column “Fine Lines” for Jezebel.com, and blogs about books on her website Old Hag. Her book Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading explores why the books of so many women’s youth continue to inspire, inform, and mold them well into adulthood.