2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy didn't Bernie use his bully pulpit in Vermont to fund single payer (which was already passed)?
Sure, sure. Bernie supporters always mock people who bring up this question and say it's not his job because he's not a local or state politician. He's a US Senator. Yeah we get that. Really.
But do people who are not in local/state government have the ability to influence public policy at the local/state government levels? Union leaders? Business leaders? Religious leaders? Civil right leaders? US Senators?
Was Martin Luther King Jr ever part of any local, state, or federal government? Was Susan Anthony?
Either Bernie didn't try (didn't care enough) or he tried and failed. Which is it?
bravenak
(34,648 posts)randys1
(16,286 posts)there is no reason he wouldnt have been for it.
I cant believe he has some secret deal with health insurance companies, or something like that.
So it is a weird situation, what are his comments on this, do we know?
bravenak
(34,648 posts)msongs
(67,405 posts)out information most people are not aware of and don't want to be aware of especially concerning the human ability to change one's spots so to speak
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Dawgs
(14,755 posts)Why couldn't she do it (if she wants it)? Since she's so popular among "liberal" democrats, surely she could have done it herself, no?
TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)She must actually be a supporter of the institutional harassment and violation of the civil liberties of black people otherwise between her considerable influence and universal brand recognition she would have taken care of this.
Why didn't Paul and McConnell stop Kynect? They must actually be supporters of ObamaCare, huh?
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Public Citizen distributed the report to state lawmakers throughout the country through the state affiliates of Health Care NOW. The report is available (at the link below).
The facts are simple: We pay far more for health care than any developed country, yet we cover fewer people and get worse results, said Dave Sterrett, health care counsel for Public Citizens Congress Watch division. Its time for real change.
But the report, A Road Map to Single-Payer: How States Can Escape the Clutches of the Private Health Insurance System, points out that Americans polled in 2012 were nearly evenly divided when asked if they favored a single-payer system, and this was amid the relentless drumbeat of opposition to the ACA. Evidence suggesting support for the single-payer concept also can be found in Americans widespread approval of Medicare, the government-run program that provides nearly universal care to those over 65 at far less cost than care that is reimbursed by private insurance companies.
The first step on a states road to a quasi-single payer system is to obtain a waiver from the ACA. This is well within reach because the act includes language that permits a state to receive a waiver from the ACAs strictures, beginning in 2017. A state can be granted this waiver if it demonstrates that its alternative would provide coverage at least as good, for at least as many people, as the ACA would, and not add costs to the federal budget. For states that receive waivers, the federal government must provide funds to the state that equal what it would spend pursuant to the ACA. A state promising to provide comprehensive, universal care would easily clear this hurdle.
http://pnhp.org/blog/2013/07/10/how-states-can-get-close-to-a-single-payer-system/
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)pinebox
(5,761 posts)That's why.
This is a common meme among Hillary supporters lately but in truth, Bernie has no say in things on the state level.
The real question here though is this---
Why is Gov. Shumlin, who's endorsed Hillary, NOT planning to go forward with single payer in VT?
Birds of a feather flock together, eh? See what I did there?
http://digital.vpr.net/post/gov-peter-shumlin-favors-hillary-clinton-over-bernie-sanders#stream/0
aikoaiko
(34,170 posts)Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)thesquanderer
(11,986 posts)I'll repeat what I said in another thread about this some time back:
Though when it comes to single payer, a quick google search did turn up that, at the time, BS was trying to win support for a federal version of what Vermont was trying to do on the state level (the federal level being, well, where his job was, and the place where his pulpit--small as it might be--actually was).
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/10/healthcare-congress (from 2011)
And there's this:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/a-single-payer-system-makes-economic-sense (from 2013)
I think it's safe to say that Bernie Sanders' support for single payer was probably well known in Vermont.
And, btw, according to { http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/single-payer-vermont-113711 } , Vermont's governor was indeed bully-pulpit pushing for it... in fact, he actually almost got it implemented, but ultimately wasn't able to get the economics of it to work and had to abandon it. There's nothing BS could have done to help unless he had come up with a way to finance it. Which, come to think of it, is, in a sense, was what he was trying to do, by laying groundwork to ultimately try to get it implemented on a federal level.