Nancy Pelosi Backs Single-Payer Health Care in 1993

EXCERPT:

PELOSI: “But for access to be universal, it must be affordable. And my concern is that at 150% of poverty, a family would have to start paying for its 20% share of the insurance, may not make it affordable for any of the families whose needs it hopes to address. There's already a concession on part of the federal government that a family needs food stamps if they're at 185% of the poverty level. If we admit that people cannot feed their families below 185% of poverty, how then can we expect them to pay for access to insurance at 150% of poverty? I think the President has some — is on the right track. I think the closer he moves toward the single-payer, the better. As I said before, I hope that this plan — when I say hope, I mean that I will join my colleagues here in working to see that the plan that the Congress passes contains as many of provisions of single-payer as possible, that it doesn't foreclose on eventual single-payer, and that it has — does not  throw up obstacles to states easily establishing their own single payer,”