We just fucking cannibalize each other fucking ourselves over and over.

[betsuni]

106. No. Ted Kennedy had been saying health care is a right, not a privilege since the '70s.

1976 party platform: "We need a comprehensive national health insurance system with universal and mandatory coverage."

Clinton administration tried to pass universal health care plan that didn't allow insurance companies to not cover those with pre-existing conditions, tried to regulate drug companies. "The corporations retaliated with about $50 million worth of attack ads. But the failure of the Clintons' effort can be chalked up to their unwillingness to compromise or even accept a phase-in of universal coverage. Basically, the Clintons had failed because they were still too radical. Remember, they had worked hard for McGovern in 1992."

Obama administration passed ACA expecting to be able to improve it, but Republicans took over Congress. The eventual success of the ACA made government involvement with health care more popular with Americans.

John Conyers introduced the Medicare for All Act in 2003 and was voted on every year until he left office, and others have introduced similar bills after that.

"To say the Democratic establishment doesn't care about the progressive goal of universal health care and that they are a bunch of neoliberal shills for the insurance industry is pure slander." Steven Stoft

The Fight For $15 was a movement to raise the minimum way started in 2012 that became a national movement. Obama:

"Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet than higher wages -- and to anyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: if you truly believe you could work full time and raise a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, then vote to give the hardest working people in America a raise."