2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Destroying Medicare to Save ObamaCare
Clintons attempt to save ObamaCare politically by adding on the public option is a bait and switch operation designed to eliminate the threat of Medicare for All. It worked that way in 2009, and Clintons pulling the same play out of the Democrat playbook for 2016. In, fact Clintons public option, despite her wonky reputation, is so skimpy on detail is to be insultingly unserious, exactly like the public option in 2009. The Democratic Establishment remains implacably opposed to Medicare for All, and if by some miracle they manage to pass the public option, that will undermine the existing Medicare program, which is no doubt their goal. On the life-and-death issue of providing health care to all Americans, there is more that divides us than unites us.
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The narrative is that Sanders is pulling Clinton left, and one example is Clinton coming out in favor of a public option for Medicare. Unfortunately for the narrators, Clintons proposal is insultingly unserious, the public option has always been a defense against single payer rather than a step towards it, the Democrat nomenklatura remains as implacably opposed to single payer as it has ever been, and, most important of all, the public option as a neo-liberal, market-based solution could have a significant negative impact on Medicare. In other words, Clinton attempt to save ObamaCare politically by supporting a public option is to mix metaphors terribly a poisoned chalice for the health care system, and not an olive branch to the left. Lets get the narrative out of the way first, and then treat the rest of these topics in order...
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procon
(15,805 posts)Moved to the appropriate forum. Apologies...
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Btw, any transition to single payer would have to have to have to start with a buy in to a public option. You cant dismantle an entire industry overnight and think it will go swimmingly. It took Canada 20 years to reach current health plan.