Kamala Harris to co-sponsor the Medicare for All bill

[DanTex]

99. Dunno about "bashing" but I still think it's not the best way to get to universal coverage

from where we are now. Single payer sounds good, and it currently polls well, but the problem is, and has always been, in the implementation. And that problem isn't going to go away regardless of who gets on board.

It's still a fact that single payer would result in the majority of Americans, who currently are satisfied with their health coverage, to be moved off that coverage. If it ever comes close to passing, you can be sure that its opponents will make that very clear and the current poll numbers will not hold up -- people don't like losing things they like.

It's still a fact that many hospitals and private practices would either have to shut down or else reduce the services they provide if they could only get medicare reimbursement rates. So either the quality of healthcare delivery is going to have to drop, or else the single payer will cost a lot more per person than medicare or medicaid.

But the thing is, to me, whether someone supports single payer is not a litmus-test issue. Unlike the people who previously (and some will continue to) bash Harris as a "neoliberal shill", I don't expect every politician I support to agree with me exactly on every issue. The important thing is electing Democrats, not the distinctions between different methods of attaining universal healthcare.