2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: "the Sanders campaign is simply pulling numbers out of the air." [View all]DanTex
(20,709 posts)And they also didn't start from the system we have now.
And, no, more diversity definitely does not make it easier to put together social programs. It makes it more difficult, because the same program has to deal with a more varied set of conditions: the same thing has to work both in inner cities and in the country, in places with young populations, and older ones, in rich and in poor areas, in areas where wages are higher, and where wages are lower. This is obvious.
And small size doesn't make things more difficult, as long as the size is big enough to consolidate the risks, for which Vermont is plenty large. Sure, if you had 100 people, that could be a problem, because one person getting seriously ill can bankrupt the whole thing. But Vermont is plenty of people for things to average out.
On the other hand, a larger system is more complex, and the US would be the largest single payer system in the world.
Being realistic about policy and about math isn't anti-Democratic. Peddling nonsense is.