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[ehrnst]

13. This has been discussed frankly and in depth, many times on Democratic Underground.

Universal Health Care is a plank in the Democratic party platform for years. There was an attempt at Single Payer by Democrats back in the early 70's. Ted Kennedy went to Nixon wanting to expand Medicare to everyone, and was told by Democrats to walk away from anything other than single payer. Nixon was proposing something that was to the left of the ACA, and Kennedy walked away. It was one of the biggest regrets of his career, because, as he said, we might have something much closer to what Canada does by the time the ACA was passed.

He and other Democrats let "perfect" be the enemy of "access to healthcare for millions" (and any possibility of to universal health coverage incrementally) for over 30 years.

Now we've finally gotten further down that road than we ever have, many of us actual , really truly progressive Democrats don't want to abandon the bus in hopes a plusher ride will come along, as Democrats did in 1971. Too many people are on that bus now.

The idea that one cannot be a progressive, or have a moral view of health care, and support any UHC policy other than single payer has been clearly show to be a fallacy. After all the vast majority of industrialized nations achieve UHC with other systems.

Certain politicians have made that fallacy a large part of their campaign, unfortunately.

And unfortunately MFA has become dogma for some on the left, like "the only moral way to address the abortion problem is to shut down Planned Parenthood" is on the right. Both really think that it makes perfect sense, despite what neutral health policy experts have to say on the matter.