To which my response is "no sh*t, sherlock."
Sanders' bill is unworkable in its current form. And I don't trust Democrats to have a workable version when they regain power because the GOP has been crying repeal and replace for 7 years only to not have anything workable.
We have three options. We could ignore healthcare entirely (something I don't agree with but I do think next time we regain power it should be lower on the bucket list than immigration, criminal justice reform, and infrastructure) we could tweak the Sanders bill while we still can so that it isn't horrendous, or we could look elsewhere. There are other members of Congress with decent plans, either standalone or as a path to an eventual workable single-payer. Brown has medicare buy-in, Kaine and Bennett have their Medicare X bill, Conyers has AmeriCare, and so on.
Is Sanders' bill garbage? Yes. Is the idea of single-payer bad? Absolutely not. But we should under no circumstances let this particular bill become law.
What makes it garbage? I mean that is a very stupid argument to make if you are not giving reasons & flaws what makes it bad.
If anything Sherrod Brown has previously supported Sanders' bill, Conyers bill is almost similar to Sanders' & it is a 1 Payer, Kaine/Bennett essentially are proposing a Public Option.
Kaine's bill does nothing for the 30 odd Millions uninsured o& doesn't radically decrease premiums for the ones who can't afford super high premiums. If anything Sanders' bill was much MUCH more detailed than Conyers. This is getting ridiculous - People themselves are giving garbage opinions & are blasting Sanders' as one.
My bad.
One issue with it is that it's just too much. It creates a system that's more generous than any existing single-payer system, and while that is a nice thing to have, it's also super expensive. But my big issue is how unwieldy it is. It barrels through the healthcare that most Americans have, that being through their employers. There's a reason why public options, medicaid expansions, and buy-ins are better for this country. Most Americans get their insurance through their job, and if you disrupt that, you're potentially doing more harm than good. He also has no mechanism to pay for his super-generous plan, which is worrisome when you're dealing with one sixth of the American economy.
In short, it leaves too much unanswered for how ambitious it is, and takes a sledgehammer to healthcare plans that millions of Americans are satisfied with. So yes, it is garbage and should not be passed.
Conyer's bill is better because it gives employers the option to switch to the AmeriCare system, rather than forcing it upon them, and it also more in line with existing single-payer healthcare systems in terms of benefits. Medicare X is a public option, something that was supposed to be in the ACA to begin with.
Why are you liberals so concerned about your hypothetical bill when you have no control over the levers of power? Not in power in the WH, senate, House, state legislatures, state governorships, etc
Because the pendulum will eventually swing back in our direction, and we need to, unlike the GOP, have our act together when it does.
