Questions for supporters of the individual mandate

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17. Why wasn't single payer pushed as a Medicare expansion?

Medicare is extremely popular - the worst you'll hear of it is its impact on the deficit and the potential for fraud, but both are largely symptoms of our ballooning health care costs and the exploitation thereof, and not problems that will diminish if Medicare diminishes -

On that note, I've never understood precisely how replacing Medicare with public-subsidized purchase of more expensive private insurance makes sense to anyone as fiscal responsibility. When I think of private insurance premiums for persons over fifty but not on medicare, especially on an individual basis, the mandate and subsidies could become very expensive indeed - particularly as these individuals have less and less in savings.