Democrats are increasingly fans of a single payer plan for health care and there are enough of us who want that to seriously move the needle on national surveys. A majority of Americans want the Federal government to help make sure everyone has access to adequate health care, and the number of people who want single payer has grown by 5 points since January, when this poll was last taken by Pew.
NY and CA are seriously considering bills to convert to single-payer; Vermont tried to get there as their Obamacare compliance and a gubernatorial candidate in Maryland is talking about it. There’s probably more. When you read about these efforts, you also get alot about the sticker shock. But that is more likely the result of doing this on a state by state basis rather on a Federal level. Which would not be cheap, either.
So where are our locals on this? I know Senator Carper had a FB Town Hall the other night to discuss health care. Other than asking to be at the table for the Trumpcare bullshit, I haven’t heard a one of them talk about any solutions. And here we find that Pew has been measuring the increasing popularity of the one solution to rule them all.
I view single payer as inevitable, but that Americans will experience much misery before it arrives with the Republicans kicking and screaming every step of the way. I’m looking at medical bankruptcy and an old age where everything I’ve worked and saved for is eaten up by hospitals, doctors and Big Pharma. All, repeat all, Dems need to “get with the program’ and push for single payer, in the end it will be cheaper and better for everyone. Just like it is in the rest of the advanced world.
i think single payer is inevitable too — which was why I was so disappointed that a Public Option was not included to Obamacare. Starting with letting people buy into Medicare is a reasonable start though and one reason why I think Dems should be talking about this as an option to fix Obamacare. It is easy to understand and sounds like it would be easy to do.
This was the plan all along from the Democrats. They want the ACA to fail, so they could put in a disastrous, single pay system.
Great response! Now take your meds, lie down and chant “I’m not a pathetic troll, I’m not a pathetic troll”.
I know Wikwox. If you disagree with anyone @ BD your a troll!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2017/03/16/why-a-government-run-single-payer-healthcare-approach-is-doomed-to-fail/2/#7fafeb2f2ea8
Wow. That’s an incredibly weak reed to be hanging your opinion on. So weak, in fact, that it can’t actually be the reason you oppose it. I’m serious, if you read that article and can’t spot the truck-sized holes in it, you’re too stupid to be talking about politics.
@ Alby You don’t think they’ll turn people away? Some Dr’s can’t wait to retire, because of the BS they have to deal with from the government bureaucracy. From Dr’s. “I used to be able to order a test, now I have to fight someone, who has not been in front of my patient and still might not get a much needed test!”
My Uncle needed a hearing aid; veteran! 3 month wait thru the VA. He ended up paying for it himself and got them in 2 weeks!
The government can’t run anything. Look at the recycling program. They have drop off yard waste sites, that will close. Because, too many people were using it and they couldn’t figure out how to keep the commercial people out. They had people from PA, using the sites!
It’s a sad state of affairs on both sides!
Recycling gets picked up once/week at my house in Wilmington like clockwork. They also pick up yard waste when I call as well.
This small business person is ready for single payer. CEO of AETNA, Waren Buffett, Charlie Munger for single-payer — or at least a discussion. The price of health care is a giant problem to business balance sheets (and to the employees who have to pay more for their health care costs), it adds to the price of US exports in a way that other countries avoid, and is a massive yearly uncertainty as those businesses have to accommodate whatever pricing/restrictions for insurance costs every year. Single payer would make those costs more predictable and would definitely get them out of the business of paying an army of people to deal with it. I think that the real drawback is the cost — what would single payer mean for their own taxes, I think.
One more. Vox got a copy of a memo from an insurer who thinks that small business premiums will likely go up under the Senate plan.
I agree with Cassandra on the public option as a start, at least until I hear a reasonable explanation on how you convince 49% of the insured population who get their insurance now through their employer that they are better off with the government as payer. Most apparently really liking that arrangement for them and were the core group opposing the ACA because they were so satisfied with the status quo. How exactly do you remove this choice from these millions of citizens without their consent?
Yet Pelosi has rejected adding it to their platform. So much for being a “driving force”.
I still don’t even know what this is even meant to mean. There’s definitely a public option in the Democratic Platform developed last summer and Nancy Pelosi has little to do with it.
Cassandra, what this means is that 150 million Americans current receive their health insurance via their employer. Lots of research tells us that most of them are quite happy to continue that arrangement and they were the major voice of discontent with the ACA when first introduced, thinking they might be forced to give up their employer based health insurance. I am referring to the full blown single payer approach, not the public option offered in tandem with private coverage. I favor the concept of single payer ofr all and certainly also the public option but I am asking I think a very reasonable question…..how do we ask those tens of millions quite happy with their employer based insurance to leave it ? Voluntarily, over time? Or force them off it? Or require employers to abandon this costly private insurance arrangement and force their employees to convert to a single payer/medicare for all program? I hear no single payer advocates explaining how this might be implemented without creating a huge, massive public opposition from the ranks of those 150,000 million? Remember how screwed up and misunderstood the ACA rollout was? This project dwarfs that challenge by any measure.
My comment was directed to Ben and that silly accusation that Pelosi wouldn’t let single payer on the platform.
here is where I got that silly accusation
https://www.districtsentinel.com/pelosi-refuses-back-single-payer-despite-gop-deathmongering-suddenly-taking-center-stage/
and here is the relevant snippet. Blast the source all you want. Show me with evidence that it is fake news and i’ll admit I was wrong.
…………….“No, I don’t,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promptly said, when asked by a reporter if she thinks single payer should be in Democrats’ 2018 party platform.
“I was carrying single payer signs probably around before you born, so I understand that aspiration,” the House Minority Leader told Vice’s Evan McMorris-Santoro. She then claimed that “the comfort level with a broader base of the American people is not there yet,” with single payer.
“So I say to people: if you want it, do it in your states. States are laboratories,” the Dem leader added. “States are a good place to start,” she also said……………
So she does seem to support it, but not enough to fight for it? Not enough to pull rank and go to the mat against the likes of Coons?
The Dems usually do a formal platform every 4 years, so even the writer has it wrong. If he wants to ask if Pelosi thinks that 2018 candidates should run on single payer, then that would be a thing. But there is nothing there that says that she will “allow” or “disallow” anything. If candidates want to run on single payer, they certainly can. And why would she pull rank against Coons? He’s in a completely different chamber. Interesting, though, that this writer did not ask Chuck Schumer if he would “allow” single payer in the Dem “Platform”. Even more interesting is that you are usually accusing the DNC of mismanaging messaging. Now that it has a guy in charge, apparently we’ve moved on to accusing Pelosi is “not allowing” stuff that she doesn’t control.