May 16, 2008 09:11 AM in Health & Medicine | Post a comment

Health care reform, one fainting spell at a time

When I wrote last week about Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wisc.), an allergist-turned member of Congress who turned down the vaunted Federal employee health insurance plan and has his own plan for health care reform, I had no idea just how quickly he planned to work. [Text continues after the photo]

I found out this week that he's not waiting until his bill is approved to improve health care. On a flight the day my story ran, Kagen was on a Northwest Airlines flight from Washington, DC, to Minneapolis, on his way home to Appleton, Wisconsin, when a woman fainted, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Kagen spokesperson Jake Rubin told the paper that Kagen "took her blood pressure, told her to lie down and kept her calm."� Rubin told me he didn't know anything about her, nor whether she had health insurance. But Kagen's efforts were one way to make sure everyone in the U.S. gets health care.

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