In a glowing profile of Montana Sen. Max Baucus, Time magazine reporter Karen Tumulty writes that the Democrat is taking the lead on health-care reform and, in doing so, has taken some of his colleagues off guard.
Baucus has been surprising almost everyone, most notably by the zeal with which he is tackling what could be the toughest challenge of all: overhauling the health-care system to provide coverage for the more than 45 million Americans who lack it and to bring soaring costs under control. Indeed, Baucus’ proposal, unveiled in an 89-page white paper eight days after the election, was even more ambitious than Obama’s, adding a requirement that individuals who are not covered by their employers purchase their own health insurance, much as car owners must carry auto insurance.
The piece also includes this anecdote, which I didn’t know about our senior senator.
Baucus is not used to giving up. At age 67, he still pushes himself to do 50-mile ultra marathons. Running one in Maryland in 2003, Baucus fell at mile 8 but still managed to finish the remaining 42, bleeding from above his right eye.