Democrats should not be playing defense now. A defensive stance does not give the impression to constituents that one’s fighting for them. With the demise of Trumpcare and Obamacare under stress in many parts of the country, this is the time for Democrats to come out in full support of a transition to single-payer Medicare for all.
Donald Trump is an out of the box politicians who may surprise Democrats and pull victory out of the defeat of the current iteration of Trumpcare. It would not be surprising if Trump made the following calculus. Obamacare is expensive. Republicans have failed to come up with a viable plan. I (Trump) will now send to Congress my single-payer Medicare for all scheme. Do not for one moment believe this is an impossibility.
First, single-payer Medicare for all is polling very well. President Trump needs to boost his overall poll numbers. Donald Trump voters have a tendency to twist themselves into pretzels to justify whatever change in position he presents. His core voters will be with him.
In an attempt to get a win at any cost Trump recently claimed that single-payer would bankrupt the country. But he has been all over the place on single-payer. As recent as May, he pointed out to the Australian Prime Minister that his single payer health care system was better than America’s health care system.
Single-payer Medicare for All is America’s only health care option
The American punditry is starting to talk about it seriously. Matthew Dowd, a down-the-middle pundit, could not be clearer about seriously considering single-payer.
“The health care system has been broken for more than 20 years, and it was broke before ACA,” Matthew Dowd said. “And it’s broke after ACA. And this fix, it’s is like going to a sick patient and giving them experimental treatment, and many experimental treatments hurt the patient. AHCA is going to hurt the patient. To me, no side is fundamentally addressing, and we need to actually ask the questions should we go to a single-payer system, because affordability hasn’t been fixed by this or ACA and accessibility…”
Conservative pundit, Fox New’s Charles Krauthammer is even more explicit. He believes America will have single-payer sooner than later. As reported in the Hill,
Fox News political commentator Charles Krauthammer predicted Thursday that healthcare in the U.S. is headed toward a single-payer system. “The terms of [the health care debate are entirely on the grounds of the liberal argument that everybody ought to [have insurance]. Once that happens, you’re going to end up with a single-payer,” Krauthammer said on Fox News’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
“Republicans are not arguing the free market anymore,” he said. “They have sort of accepted the any commodity. It’s not like purchasing a steak or a car. It is something people now have a sense that government ought to guarantee. “I would predict that in less than seven years we’ll be in a single-payer system. I think that’s the great irony of this.”
It is as if many who would never have taken single-payer seriously are coming to the conclusion that market-baed health insurance is untenable. Only a sect within the Republican Party remains who believe their Ayn Randian beliefs should make up the core of our health care system.
In recent interviews on several cable news channels, anchors and hosts asked Democrat after Democrat if they would support a single-payer Medicare for all health care system. Except for those decidedly on the very Progressive side, they all refused to back it.
Trump has no core. And he can boldly change and re-change his stances on a dime. After the current version of Trumpcare fails, the Donald may start weighing his options. He may figure out that in fact, he can get a health care bill. It is evident most of his voters will likely stick with him no matter what he does.
If Trump decided to get behind single-payer, it would probably force enough Democrats and enough Republicans to come together to pass such a bill guaranteeing Donald Trump a second term and the savior of the United States health care system.
In other words, just like Donald Trump triangulated Americans in mixing Progressive populist ideas as he campaigned, even though he had no intentions of fulfilling them, he may do the same with health care. Democrats must stop playing defense and present a plan Americans want. Provide a narrative that starts the process of immediately improving Obamacare’s flaws in the short term. Then create a credible transition plan with the proper narrative of removing an unnecessary middleperson that skims portions of our premiums to enrich a few without adding any value to Americans. And one must repeat, that system is single-payer Medicare for all.