WASHINGTON — They weren’t ready to hug each other, but when the president of the nation’s largest union and the chief executive of the world’s biggest retailer joined together to talk about the need for a new American health-care system, people took notice. ‘What business and labor seem to be agreeing on more and more is that everyone needs to be covered and it can’t be done with a system designed in the 1940s if America is to be competitive in a 21st century global economy,’ said Sen. Ron Wyden, and Oregon Democrat who has introduced legislation that would sever the link between employers and health insurance, requiring all Americans to buy health policies directly from insurers. The issue is also becoming an important theme of the 2008 presidential election, with Sen. Barack Obama calling for universal health care as he launched his candidacy on Saturday. Beyond the high-profile pairing of Scott and Stern, health policy experts have been impressed by an ever-growing coalition of strange bedfellows who are beating the drum for universal health care coverage — a potential sea change on an issue that proved to be dangerous political dynamite for Bill Clinton’s presidency […]