Imagine Single-Payer Healthcare and what the reaction would be.

[Martin Eden]

35. "Everyone pays according to their income and everyone benefits according to their need."

Sound an awful lot like Karl Marx:
From each according to his ability and to each according to his need.

No doubt the screamers on the right would point that out in a heartbeat.

And you know what?
They'd be right, and they'd be dead wrong.
They'd be right in that the concept is Marxist, and dead wrong in their opposition to it.

We can have a capitalist economy with the profit motive and markets driven by supply & demand, and we can have universal single payer health care right alongside it. Because what makes sense for one doesn't necessarily make sense for the other, and corporate health insurance is a horrible failure in providing coverage. The corporate profit margin is DENIAL of coverage, there is a huge overhead with CEO's & major shareholders pocketing great wealth, and the people who most need medical care are least able to afford a policy based on actuarial tables.

It's going to be a rocky road to Single Payer, if we ever do get there. Critically important is how the ACA works out, both in providing health coverage and politically how it is perceived.