The Single-Payer Insanity

[yallerdawg]

Source: Politico Magazine, by Bill Scher

I can’t believe I have to remind anybody of this, but health care debates are always vicious. The Hillarycare push contributed to the Democratic loss of Congress in 1994. The passage of the Affordable Care Act fueled the Tea Party backlash that helped Republicans take the House in 2010, and lingering resentment buoyed Trump in 2016. Then the failed attempt at ACA repeal burned Republicans this year, sowing bitterness among conservative base voters and driving a wedge between the president and congressional leaders.

However, single payer is not a moral imperative; it is just one means to an end. The ACA is another.

The framework is already built. The ACA’s individual mandate requires most to purchase insurance or pay a penalty, save for those with a hardship exemption. As a result, nearly 20 million more Americans are now covered. In 2016, 6.5 million chose the penalty instead of getting coverage (paying an average of $470), and another 12.7 million were exempted. Instead of building an entirely new system, a willing Congress could less dramatically and disruptively build on the current system, stiffening the penalties for noncompliance, increasing subsidies and pursuing further cost controls to eliminate the need for hardship exemptions.

Climate change is more than a life-and-death issue, it’s a planetary survival issue. Yet Democrats are not falling over each other to see who can most rapidly slash greenhouse gas emissions and stem the crisis.

Ending an immigration system that has created millions of second-class American denizens who lack voting rights and worker rights is a moral imperative. Trump’s toying with the lives of undocumented Dreamers galvanized Democrats last week. Yet this week, Democrats risk blunting that momentum by diving back into the health care cauldron.

Crumbling infrastructure risks lives and drags down the economy. Unaffordable early education and higher education exacerbates inequality. The opioid crisis is devastating communities. The globalized, automated “gig” economy fuels economic anxiety and insecurity.

But health care? That’s a battle Democrats have waged for three decades, paid enormous political prices and somehow managed to come out ahead. The Affordable Care Act is still standing. For Pete’s sake, Democrats. Pocket the win and move on.

Read it all at: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/12/single-payer-democrats-litmus-test-bernie-sanders-215600?wpisrc=nl_health202&wpmm=1

[Voltaire2]

1. It is a hugely popular issue that if we clearly stood for as a party could bring us back to power.

This issue can unite all working americans regardless or race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. But yes indeed it is safer to not stand for anything, to not take clear positions, to not seize opportunities.

[yallerdawg]

3. Working Americans have insurance and health care - thanks to ACA.

Single-payer was just rejected in the last presidential primary!

Supporting the ACA was rejected by over 60,000,000 American voters last presidential election, and every branch of government is right-leaning now, all claiming "repeal and replace the ACA" as foundational!

I fail to see the logic and evidence that supports your theory this is the way to political victory?

[HarmonyRockets]

6. Congrats

You just gave the exact talking point that Sarah Huckabee Sanders did today in her press brief.

Seeing "Democrats" on this board against single payer is just f*cking sad.

[yallerdawg]

8. Facts ARE occasionally talking points.

Are you suggesting truth is relative to who says it? Now, that's really sad.

By the way, I am not a "Democrat."

I am a f*cking DEMOCRAT with a different opinion.

[planetc]

2. I do note, however, that Medicare itself is standing, running, and ...

could simply be replicated, as well as expanded. We know how to do Medicare, and if we could at last save money, we could add dental care, and assistance for families with aging members, and other crying needs. And perhaps we could do more for less money, which European countries seem to have accomplished.

[area51]

4. Exactly.

"The framework is already built"... for Medicare.

For the folks worried about what the rightwing, for-profit insurance cos will do if we transition to single-payer, they can always sell other insurance.

[HarmonyRockets]

5. "Pocket the win and move on"

[yallerdawg]

7. Oh, hell yeah!!!

And IT'S FREE!!!

[Leith]

10. Nobody Except Lying Propagandists Are Claiming That

It would be cheaper, every pays in, and everyone benefits. Can your preferred health insurance say the same?

[yallerdawg]

11. "One medical card good anywhere" and "$0."

Who is the "propagandist?"

[TCJ70]

9. One thing we have to be realistic and clear on with these proposals...

...is that it won't save everyone money. There are people out there that don't pay anything or pay very small amounts for their employer based insurance. We get insurance through my wife's work since it's cheaper than what mine offers. I would start paying under a Medicare-For-All plan and she would pay likely less. It might even out for us unless the tax is higher than the savings my wife would see.

Graphics like these are really good at pointing out the excellent parts of Medicare-For-All but without that payment part it's easy to dismiss.

FOR THE RECORD...I'M NOT OPPOSED TO THE IDEA EVEN THOUGH IT MAY COST US MORE.

[JCanete]

12. Wow, what a bunch of horseshit. Just a lot of reasons why we shouldn't push forward.

"it could hurt us..." it has hurt us. The ACA also hurt us because we were wishy washy about our own advocacy. It hurts us to let the GOP grab onto a message and put us on the defensive. We should be putting them on the defensive. For that matter, all the groundwork, from Clinton on up that did pay a political cost is why we are finally here today. Why waste what it cost? It got us here, finally, after wearing down the reactionary backlash.

"what about other important issues..." lets fucking do them too! You don't not do this one because there are other important issues.

"there are other ways..." so what, this is a way and it's gaining steam.