1 Payer Megathread - Sanders discusses on MTP - Likely to run as Indy in 2018

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GOP Senator Drowned Out By Cheers for 'Single Payer' at Town Hall


When Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) took the stage at a scheduled town hall on Tuesday in Greeley, Colorado, he apparently didn't expect to be confronted by a crowd full of enthusiastic supporters of single-payer healthcare.

At one point during the discussion, Gardner asked how many in the audience supported single-payer healthcare. An "overwhelming majority in the high school auditorium raised their hands," reports Colorado Public Radio. Gardner responded defiantly, saying: "I do not support single-payer, I do not support socialized medicine." A recent Associated Press/NORC poll found that 62 percent of Americans believe it is "the federal government's responsibility to make sure that all Americans have healthcare coverage."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/08/16/gop-senator-drowned-out-cheers-single-payer-town-hal

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Bernie Sanders to join Conyers for town hall in Detroit

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential candidate, will join U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. for a town hall meeting in Detroit next week to discuss healthcare and jobs.

A single-payer health care system is likely to be on the agenda. It was at the core of the Vermont independent’s 2016 campaign, and Conyers, the Detroit Democrat, has introduced Medicare-for-all legislation every Congress since 2003. The town hall is planned for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Fellowship Chapel Church, 7707 W. Outer Drive in Detroit. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and admission is “first come, first served.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/08/16/bernie-sanders-john-conyers-detroit-town-hall/104665602/

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A new survey says doctors are warming up to single-payer health care

Fifty-six percent of doctors registered either strong support or were somewhat supportive of a single-payer health system, according to the survey by Merritt Hawkins, a physician recruitment firm. In its 2008 survey, opinions ran the opposite way — 58 percent opposed single-payer. What’s changed?

Red tape, doctors tell Merritt Hawkins. Phillip Miller, the firm’s vice president of communications, said that in the thousands of conversations its employees have with doctors each year, physicians often say they are tired of dealing with billing and paperwork, which takes time away from patients.“Physicians long for the relative clarity and simplicity of single-payer. In their minds, it would create less distractions, taking care of patients — not reimbursement,” Miller said.

Schroeder has taught medicine at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center since 1971 and has noticed students’ increasing support for a single-payer system, an attitude they likely carry into their professional careers. “Most of the medical students here don’t understand why the rest of the country doesn’t support it,” said Schroeder.

https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/17/doctors-single-payer/

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“Is anybody taping me right now? OK, so, you may have heard that Nancy [Pelosi] is not for it, but that’s not really true,” Ellison said. “Nancy has to represent a very diverse caucus. She does not like getting out ahead of the caucus too fast. So she’s trying to get, she’s, you know, you know, she actually likes the concept.”

“She’s trying to get, you know, you know, she actually likes the concept. She says it’s the best way to do it. She says it’s the cheapest way to do it, but she’s got to make sure that she brings our Blue Dog friends along,” Ellison added. “And by the way, for any of us progressives who get mad at the Blue Dogs, if we didn’t have them, some of them would be replaced by Republicans.”

http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/21/exclusive-keith-ellison-reveals-nancy-pelosis-real-views-on-single-payer-video/

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Okay, shadows, will you stop demonizing Pelosi now?

I have never demonized Pelosi. I thought she was great speaker & has taken a lot of hit. However, she is a poor leader, poor speaker, her approvals are terrible & she drags down Congressional candidates. It is time for her to go however I prefer her over Hoyer or Clyburn. I think Schumer who is another neo liberal is smarter than her & more attuned to ground realities.

But I have always like Speaker Pelosi. Obama would have got nothing done, including the ACA if not for Pelosi.

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Sanders to unveil 'Medicare for all' bill on Wednesday

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will unveil his “Medicare for all” bill on Wednesday, his office announced Friday. The advisory from his office says that Sanders will be joined by Senate co-sponsors, though does not list who they are. He will also be joined by “medical professionals, business leaders, and patients.”

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/349830-sanders-to-unveil-medicare-for-all-bill-on-wednesday

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Affordable Care Act Architect Flips on Single-Payer: ‘The Time Has Come’

In the summer of 2009, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. was asked if Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee who was taking the lead on health care reform at the time, was open to his ideas. "To a single-payer idea? No. Not in a million years," Sanders replied to a C-SPAN interviewer. "I just think the time has come," Baucus told NBC News Friday, after stunning healthcare observers earlier in the day by seemingly coming around on single-payer at a public forum. "Back in '09, we were not ready to address it. It would never have passed. Here we are nine years later, I think it's time to hopefully have a very serious good faith look at it."

"I started out by saying everything is on the table," Baucus recalled. "But I did make an exception and that was single-payer. I said, nope, we're not going to put single-payer on the table. Why? In my judgement, America was just not there ... It's branded as socialistic by too many people." On Wednesday, Baucus' fellow Montanan, moderate Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who is facing a tough reelection bid next year, said it might be time to "take a solid look at" single-payer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sanders-steps-push-single-payer-health-care-old-foe-switches-n799911

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This was the only Single-payer thread which I created long back & am using. I also created a HR676 thread, House bill long back. But this is a Mega thread to manage all Single Payer related talk.

And why the f*** are people making stupid statements over here? There should be some minimum IQ requirements for post, so that people like BlueDog don't post here - Don't post if you don't like the thread. And Wulfric, I would like to see Pelosi as speaker again (especially when the alternate is people like Hoyer & Clyburn) but she is a poor leader in general (& I liked what Pelosi was as a speaker back in the Bush & Obama days).

Anyways -

Sheldon Whitehouse to co-sponsor Bernie's Medicare for all bill.

Sheldon Whitehouse will cosponsor the “Medicare for All” single-payer health insurance bill that Bernie Sanders is introducing next week. “Senator Whitehouse intends to cosponsor this bill to move the conversation forward on single-payer health care,” spokeswoman Meaghan McCabe told me Friday night.

http://wpri.com/2017/09/09/nesis-notes-sept-9/

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Single payer universal health care is the only way forward - something which every western nation except the US realized decades ago. I hope that very soon every hopeful democratic candidate will have it on his or her agenda. It should be a litmus test, really.

Really? How many Western countries have single payer? Not most.

It is the only form which is not unconstitutional in the US & can be universal. All other forms are unconstitutional if universal. Germany has a Single payer within the multi-payer framework which is like 80-85% of it.

Single payer universal health care is the only way forward - something which every western nation except the US realized decades ago. I hope that very soon every hopeful democratic candidate will have it on his or her agenda. It should be a litmus test, really.

Really? How many Western countries have single payer? Not most.

Single-Payer, in its purest sense, is complete and total government health care, to the point that Private Insurance is completely non-existent. Very few countries have this - even most systems that are advertised as "Single Payer" have private insurance for specialized services, or accelerated speed of care, or something. However, most countries do have something to the left of ObamaCare.

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While Single-Payer is the wrong solution for any capitalist country, I would be willing to support a public option, provided it has to compete alongside private plans, and does not add to the deficit.

Wulfric - There is no capitalist solution for healthcare & has never been in any civilized country. Forget the fact that you shouldn't be able to make money & price gouge sick patients, but like national security, defense, democracy, healthcare is one area where capitalism has failed everywhere.

Besides Public Option is still a failure. Like Medicaid expansion, it could be made optional depending on what the courts rule. But even if it is, it is not the solution. Most people don't buy healthcare from the exchange. It doesn't do much good to the 28-30M who have no health insurance. And it lowers premiums very marginally for the ones suffering from high premiums (Most studies show Public option lowers premiums only marginally). And it doesn't address most of the major ACA problems. You need a massive riskpool to drive down premiums. There is no incentive for young & healthy people to buy insurance.

To argue Single payer is anti-capitalism is ridiculous for 2 reasons. Capitalism in the pure form died a 100 years back with the great depression. Minimum Wage is the most anti-capitalism, anti-free market idea, even more than Single Payer & destroys the so-called free labour market. Neither is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security or Food Stamps capitalist ideas. So you have to oppose everyone of these programs if you want to oppose Single Payer for supporting Capitalism.

Secondly, how can you support ACA with a Public Option if you support Capitalism. No country puts such massive healthcare costs to businesses, prevents them from growing & puts them at a huge cost disadvantage internationally. The current ACA model is thus anti-capitalist & anti-businesses. So, you should also oppose the ACA & especially the pre-existing conditions clause as well if you want to support Capitalism

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“My folks never had health insurance on the farm. They retired in 1970. Never had health insurance ever.” “Their first insurance they had was Medicare. There’s a reason for that: In the mid-60s when that happened, it was $400,” said Tester, who is up for reelection in what is likely to be one of the most competitive Senate races in 2018. “So the question is, there’s been a lot of debate, there’s been amendments offered on single payer for political purposes, but maybe not. Maybe it’s something we should, quite frankly, take a solid look at.”

Tester then asked the hearing's panel of experts how to finance the health care system and how to control the costs. The amendment was shot down 0 to 57 with most Democrats voting "present." Tester was one of four Democrats — and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) — who went on record as voting no.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/349493-centrist-dem-maybe-we-should-look-at-single-payer-healthcare

After being 1 of 5 Democrats to vote no on the GOP Single payer bill, Tester wants to look have a "solid look" at Single Payer.

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Warren dismisses Dem divisions as lawmakers rally around single-payer

"One party in America said it was OK to roll back health care coverage for 25 million Americans and one party in America thinks that health care is a basic human right -- I'm ready to go on that one," she said Friday. She added that the true strength of the Democratic Party doesn't come from the party elites, but rather the grassroots activists who shifted the party left on health care. "We don't live in a world where a handful of insiders get to run the Democratic Party — we just don't live in that world," Warren insisted. "We live in a world where the heart and soul of the Democratic Party is down at the grassroots — this health care fight has shown the power of the grassroots. "It's not only that people have shown it to themselves and to each other, they've shown it to the leadership, as well," she added.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/349939-warren-dismisses-inter-party-divisions-as-dems-rally-around

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I'm more of a fan of the Bismarck model of healthcare than the Beveridge model.

In general, I like the German multi-payer model as well, as well as the Insurance Mandate system in many Scandinavian countries. They are all decent systems to get to Universal Healthcare.

Democrats should support a single payer & keep some stuff like Hip Replacement & other set of stuff out of it. Then they can further deregulate & reduce coverage after observing which areas are facing bureaucratic issues or delays - Leave those under a highly regulated Private insurance. I don't see how an income level & forcing people to buy insurance will be constitutional but you can play around the coverage level.

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It is the only form which is not unconstitutional in the US & can be universal. All other forms are unconstitutional if universal.

I don't think so.  SCOTUS said the Medicare expansion in Obamacare was unconstitutional because of how the federal government was coercing the states to pay for it.  If you do a multi-payer system that doesn't rely on state governments to fund it, then I don't see what the constitutional problem is.

Yea that's not possible if we go universality. Let us say 100% are covered, all funds come from the Federal Government. How do you separate Government Insurance & Private insurance? Let us say, like Germany does by Income level (50K). How the hell are you going to force people under 50K to buy Federal Insurance & how the hell are you going to buy Private Insurance.

Let us say, all Federal Insurance is free without Deductibles (Paid by Payroll & other taxes). No-one needs to be forced to buy it. It is just given. But then you will have Private Insurance for Income Level X. Now that has to be directly paid to the private insurance. And if they don't get the Insurance premiums/Copays/Deductibles, they won't provide insurance. How do you force people above, let's say 70K/80K to buy Private Insurance?

And the more the Government provided Insurance is, the more the Single Payer component is.

The only way I can see it being worked is if Government gives a minimum emergency & a set of other coverage options to everyone (Within a Single Payer). And there is a private insurance on top of that which will cover other aspects. Basically, Essentials through the 1 payer & Others through Private.

Do you know any other way how it will work ?

[Shadows]

Chris Murphy’s stealthy single-payer pitch


Sen. Chris Murphy, a potential presidential contender, is working on legislation expected this fall that would let every individual and business buy into Medicare as part of Obamacare’s exchanges. As Sanders and other potential challengers to President Donald Trump flock to “Medicare for all,” embracing a top liberal priority before 2020, Murphy is taking a conspicuously more pragmatic approach designed to get Democrats closer to that lofty but potentially unobtainable goal.

Murphy added, “We’re not going to pass a single-payer health care bill any time in the next few years. And so we need to have a conversation about how we get there.” A Medicare buy-in “may not be as big a leap for the health care system as single-payer, but I think it’s a big, easy-to-understand, and super-popular idea,” Murphy said.

“I think we need to be in the business of communicating big, easy-to-understand ideas to people in a way that we didn’t in 2016,” he added. “Donald Trump had very dangerous ideas, but they were easy to get your head wrapped around. Hillary Clinton had very good ideas, but they were so obtuse that few understood them.” Murphy followed that backhanded compliment of Trump with clear praise for Sanders: “There’s nobody better in our party than Bernie at communicating big, easy-to-understand ideas.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/07/murphy-democrats-rising-star-healthcare-bernie-sanders-242455

Chris Murphy things Medicare buy-in will be a bridge to Single Payer & should be the immediate goal.

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Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Sheldon Whitehouse were already co-sponsors the Medicare for all bill.

It looks like Brian Schatz & Patrick Leahy has joined them (Leahy isn't mentioned in this pic)

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So aside from the red state senators, who are likely to be the last hold outs among Democrats hypothetically? Cadwell? Murray? Carper? Warner? Feinstein? Anyone else?

More than that. Probably 2 Dozen Blue state dems. It will take time but the target should be 25-30 people supporting it now. Most 2020 contenders are on board, so if you have a Dem President who is willing to champion the same, the rest of the caucus will come on board. I am pretty sure the next Dem President will have more leverage & political acumen than Obama in pushing legislation through,

[Shadows]

The dam is breaking on Democrats’ embrace of single-payer

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) became the fourth co-sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) “Medicare for all” health-care bill Monday. In doing so, he joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.). What do those four senators have in common? Well, they just happen to constitute four of the eight most likely 2020 Democratic presidential nominees, according to the handy list I put out Friday. There are 48 members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate. That four of the first five to come out in support of Sanders's bill all came from a relatively small universe of top presidential hopefuls suggests that this will be a litmus test issue in 2020.

And polls certainly suggest its time has come — at least on the left. I argued back in July that the biggest winner of the Obamacare repeal debate was single-payer. And polls have repeatedly shown an increase in support for both single-payer and the idea that government should guarantee health care, even among Republicans. A Pew poll in January showed 60 percent of Americans said the government had a responsibility to provide health-care coverage for all, up from 51 percent the year before.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/11/the-dam-is-now-breaking-on-democrats-embrace-of-single-payer/?utm_term=.2a7d04ed820c


Medicare for All: The Next Step in the New Deal

Roosevelt had originally planned to include national health insurance in his Social Security legislation, but ultimately decided that it was asking for too much at once. Shortly after Social Security was enacted, his administration laid the groundwork for national health insurance by conducting health surveys and discussing strategy internally. In his budget message to Congress delivered just one month after the nation’s entry into the war, Roosevelt proposed that Social Security be expanded to include hospital insurance.  He continued to promote the expansion of Social Security, including the addition of universal, government-sponsored health insurance. Indeed, in his January 6, 1945 State of the Union Address, as the end of the war was in sight, he indicated he was ready for action. Tragically, Roosevelt died just three months later, before he was able to fulfill his commitment.

His successor, President Harry Truman, picked up the mantle. But Truman met fierce opposition from Republican leaders, who denounced Truman’s health care plan as “socialist.” One of Medicare’s key architects, the late Robert M. Ball (the longest serving Social Security Commissioner in the history of the program), explained the thinking: “[A]ll of us who developed Medicare and fought for it… had been advocates of universal national health insurance. We all saw insurance for the elderly as a fallback position, which we advocated solely because it seemed to have the best chance politically"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/medicare-for-all-the-next-step-in-the-new-deal_us_59b6d9e7e4b02bebae75f06e

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Mazie Hirono has jumped on board.

And so have Blumenthal and Baldwin

@maziehirono
I support universal, affordable, accessible, quality health care as a right, not a privilege. #MedicareForAll

@SenatorBaldwin
 Every American should have affordable care. Let's reach that goal. I'm cosponsoring @SenSanders' Medicare for All.

@SenBlumenthal
 Proud to announce my support for single-payer #MedicareForAll led by @SenSanders. Let's make healthcare a right, not a luxury.


So far -

Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Kamala Harris
Cory Booker
Jeff Merkley
Shelton Whitehouse
Kirtsen Gillibrand
Brian Schatz
Patrick Leahy
Mazie Hirono
Tammy Baldwin
Richard Blumenthal

That is 12. 31/32 people supported 15$ Min wage so far. The goal here should be 25 or greater than 50% of the Democratic Caucus for Single payer.

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@SenatorTomUdall  16m16 minutes ago
 Health care is a human right. Every American should be able to see a doctor when they’re sick. That’s why I support #MedicareForAll.
Tom Udall is the latest Co-sponsors!


@JStein_Vox  21h21 hours ago
There's a palpable excitement/giddiness today among veteran lefties of the Hill watching more and more Senate Democrats back Bernie's bill

@JStein_Vox  20h20 hours ago
In email, Browns office stresses his work on "Medicare-at-55 bill," which has 6 Senate Ds but 0 GOP co-sponsors rn:

@JStein_Vox  23h23 hours ago
.@RonWyden (D-OH) says he's undecided but suggests he's open to persuasion
"I'm going to be looking at Sanders' bill"

@JStein_Vox  22h22 hours ago
Sen. @ChrisVanHollen (D-MD) also needs to read Bernie's bill, but adds he likes "Medicare for All-type system"4th "maybe" I've talked to

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Traitor.

To whom?

To the United States. Everyone who supports single-payer or even more socialistic forms of healthcare is a socialist by association and therefore a traitor the government of the United States of America.

So Truman and LBJ were un-American socialists, then?

As was FDR or Ted Kennedy or JFK (who campaigned on Medicare/Medicaid). And not just that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid & Minimum wage are even more socialist policies.

Minimum wage is a 1000 times more socialistic policy. It abolished the free job market. People who oppose Single Payer should demand that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security & Minimum Wage be abolished.

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Al Franken hops on the Medicare for all bandwagon (Mentions the great Paul Wellstone while cosponsoring the bill)

@SenFranken  4h4 hours ago
Like Paul Wellstone, I believe health care is a right for all Americans. My stmnt on cosponsoring @SenSanders bill

And the phones are going mad for each Dem Senators office. People are pushing like mad.

Cosponsors -
Sens. Tammy Baldwin
Richard Blumenthal
Cory Booker
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kamala Harris
Mazie Hirono
Ed Markey
Jeff Merkley
Brian Schatz
Elizabeth Warren
Sheldon Whitehouse
Tom Udall
Martin Heinrich
Al Franken
Patrick Leahy

That is 15 (+ Sanders). 33% of the Dem Caucus. HR676 got to 60%+ in the House. The target there should be 50%+ (a majority). Sanders needs 9 more Co-sponsors to get a Majority of the Dems to support Single Payer.

WaPo post has an article on the Bernie bill. Apparently it is not a 1 shot bill but phased in over 4 years. We need to see the details - How is this phased in?

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Details about the bill -

Everything from emergency surgery to prescription drugs, from mental health to eye care, would be covered, with no co-payments. Americans younger than 18 would immediately obtain "universal Medicare cards," while Americans not currently eligible for Medicare would be phased into the program over four years. Employer-provided health care would be replaced, with the employers paying higher taxes but no longer on the hook for insurance. Private insurers would remain, with fewer customers, to pay for elective treatments such as cosmetic surgery - a system similar to that in Australia, which President Donald Trump has praised for having a "much better" insurance regimen than the United States. Providers would sign a yearly participation agreement with Medicare to remain with the system.

"When you have co-payments - when you say that health care is not a right for everybody, whether you're poor or whether you're a billionaire - the evidence suggests that it becomes a disincentive for people to get the health care they need," Sanders said."Depending on the level of the copayment, it may cost more to figure out how you collect it than to not have the copayment at all."

"Rather than give a detailed proposal about how we're going to raise $3 trillion a year, we'd rather give the American people options," Sanders said. "The truth is, embarrassingly, that on this enormously important issue, there has not been the kind of research and study that we need. You've got think tanks, in many cases funded by the drug companies and the insurance companies, telling us how terribly expensive it's going to be. We have economists looking at it who are coming up with different numbers."

Bill will give options as ways of funding it which will be finalized later which is good - Payroll Taxes, National Sales Tax, Federal Income Tax, Tax on Employers (as you take away health insurance mandate for them) can all be used to fund it - The bifurcation of that should be decided by the Democratic caucus after studying numbers.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-bernie-sanders-health-plan-20170912-story.html

This is Medicare with 0 Co-payments, similar to what Medicaid is.

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Bernie Sanders explains why he thinks everything short of Medicare-for-all is failure


Jeff Stein: What is the major crisis this bill addresses, and how, specifically, are you going to address?

Sanders - 28 million, as you've indicated, have zero health insurance. Even more are underinsured, with high deductibles and high copayments. Every other major country on Earth has decided that health care is a right, and we've got to do the same. That's No. 1. No. 2: Why is it in Canada they spend less than $5,000 per person and guarantee health care to all of their people? We spend almost $10,000, and we have so many people uninsured or underinsured. Thirdly, why are we paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, so that one out of five Americans under 64 cannot afford the medicine that they need?


Jeff Stein : One hundred and fifty million people currently rely on their employer-sponsored health care plans. Some Senate Democrats say we can achieve universal health care without eliminating [private markets].

Sanders - Health care is expensive. How do we do it in the most cost-effective way? And the most cost-effective way is not allowing insurance companies and drug companies to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in profits from human illness.

It is also not creating an incredibly complicated system. We have hundreds of different insurance programs in this country that have to be administered at great cost. Right? So you have a $5,000 deductible; I have a $3,000 deductible; he has a $50 copayment. You can’t go to that doctor, but she can go to that doctor. It's an incredibly complicated system, and we are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars administering this incredibly complicated system. ... You’re having doctors who have been increasingly demoralized, nurses demoralized. Go and talk to employers — especially small businesses — and find out how much time and energy they are wasting trying to provide health insurance to their employees.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/13/16297228/bernie-sanders-medicare-single-payer

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Bernie Sanders's new Medicare-for-all plan, explained

The plan is significantly more generous than the single-payer plans run by America’s peer countries. The Canadian health care system, for example, does not cover vision or dental care, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services, or home health services. Instead, two-thirds of Canadians take out private insurance policies to cover these benefits. The Netherlands has a similar set of benefits (it also excludes dental and vision care), as does Australia.

This too is out of line with international single-payer systems, which often require some payment for seeking most services. Taiwan’s single-payer system charges patients when they visit the doctor or the hospital (although it includes an exemption for low-income patients). In Australia, people pay 15 percent of the cost of their visit with any specialty doctor. The Sanders plan is more generous than the plans Americans currently receive at work too. Most employer-sponsored plans last year had a deductible of more than $1,000. It is more generous than the current Medicare program, which covers Americans over 65 and has seniors pay 20 percent of their doctor visit costs even after they meet their deductibles.

One of Sanders’s main arguments in favor of his health care bill is that American health spending is out of control and single-payer would rein it in. There are certainly policies in the Sanders plan that would reduce American health care spending. For one, moving all Americans on to one health plan would reduce the administrative waste in our health care system in the long run. One 2003 article in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that the United States spends twice as much on administrative costs as Canada. A 2011 study in the journal Health Affairs estimates American doctors spend four times as much dealing with insurance companies compared with Canada. Medicare typically has lower prices than those charged by private insurance plans that cover Americans under 65. This suggests that switching to the Medicare fee schedule would be another policy change that would tug health spending downward.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/13/16296656/bernie-sanders-single-payer

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There is no funding mechanism in the bill it is the definition of vapor ware. At least the GOP bill as bad as it is had numbers behind it. 'How do we pay for this' is undoubtedly going to be he #1 question voters ask and they won't get an answer. I don't blame swing Ds from staying away from this.

The bill is not even out. Sanders said he will release multiple options for funding.

Besides Sanders' bill proposed during his Presidential run had details of funding. There are already multiple economists working on the amount of funding required for the new system. Besides it will change since it will be phased in. Thus, the taxes hikes will also be phased in.

It is a strong statement & a good bargaining chip. I think a Dem Senate will take off eye, dental & some other coverage & put a small copayment on top of it.