More and more nationally known Democrats are starting to come around on the idea of a single-payer health care system. Eight years ago before the affordable care act, a national single-payer health care program was simply out of the question in Washington.
So instead Democrats – who controlled all of D.C. at the time – tried to work with Republicans on crafting new health care legislation. They borrowed ideas from the conservative Heritage Foundation, they borrowed ideas from Mitt Romney, and they deliberated the bill for over year – all with the belief that the legislation’s survival hinged on Republican buy in.
That was clearly a mistake considering Republicans have made it their life mission to destroy the bill as much as possible. Now that it’s clear that Republicans would fight tooth and nail against any health care reform, Democrats figure, why not just go big and settle on single-payer? After all, study after study show that a majority of Americans support a single-payer system.
Republicans in the meantime are hoping that single-payer is still a scary enough idea to a broad enough cross section of Americans that their party’s mere opposition to it will continue to net them wins.
So far, the Republicans have pulled off a lot by attacking Obamacare – but it’s easier when the legislation is already affecting millions of Americans and it wasn’t benefitting all of them. Can opposition to a hypothetical health care plan be as potent of an attack line for the GOP leading into 2018 and even 2020?
We’ll see
So instead Democrats – who controlled all of D.C. at the time – tried to work with Republicans on crafting new health care legislation. They borrowed ideas from the conservative Heritage Foundation, they borrowed ideas from Mitt Romney, and they deliberated the bill for over year – all with the belief that the legislation’s survival hinged on Republican buy in.
That was clearly a mistake considering Republicans have made it their life mission to destroy the bill as much as possible. Now that it’s clear that Republicans would fight tooth and nail against any health care reform, Democrats figure, why not just go big and settle on single-payer? After all, study after study show that a majority of Americans support a single-payer system.
Republicans in the meantime are hoping that single-payer is still a scary enough idea to a broad enough cross section of Americans that their party’s mere opposition to it will continue to net them wins.
So far, the Republicans have pulled off a lot by attacking Obamacare – but it’s easier when the legislation is already affecting millions of Americans and it wasn’t benefitting all of them. Can opposition to a hypothetical health care plan be as potent of an attack line for the GOP leading into 2018 and even 2020?
We’ll see