When health reform is on the agenda, it sucks up all the political oxygen in the room

[Dietz]

“Health care is vitally important, but so is climate change, so is voting rights, so is gun control,” he said. “When health reform is on the agenda, it sucks up all the political oxygen in the room, and there’s very little room or space for anything.”

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/01/should-medicare-for-all-be-democrats-top-priority/

[CrispyQ]

1. You're gonna make us click to find out who said it?

That's kind of bad form.

[lunasun]

2. Yes it is a shame that this is still having to be discussed 2020 in this country!

I was just looking at South Korea , we as a country helped stabilize the area last century and how since 1977 they have universal health care.
The quality of South Korean healthcare has been ranked as being among the world's best
We should have been beyond this and no discussion needed at all last century!

[loyalsister]

3. When people are dead

The fact that they would still be alive if they had had access to healthcare matters to compassionate people.

[Dietz]

4. Confounding universal healthcare with Medicare for all

The reason healthcare is such a prominent debate topic is because the need for universal healthcare (on which all democratic candidates agree) is confused with a particular proposal: Medicare for All. This is what is drowning out all other topics: Mass incarceration, climate change, gun control, educational justice. It's a demagogical way of making people think that anybody who doesn't support Medicare for all doesn't support healthcare for all. There are so many countries who have universal healthcare or 'almost' universal healthcare, but do not have a single payer health plan. The question to ask is: what is the most realistic and fastest way for the US to achieve universal healthcare?