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

[Deblano]

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

[Shadows]

“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.

[Shadows]

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

[Shadows]

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.

[James Monroe]

How are single payer advocates going to justify the existence of the Hyde Amendment? For much of my disputes with the far-left, one major issue that they overlooked is the overturning of women rights. What the single payer could should accomplished first is to repealed the Hyde Amendment, so that every abortion will be covered through health care. It would displace the burdens that hard-working women have to face when dealing with the consequences of reproduction. Funding for abortion would erase the patriarchy and give power to all women in our country.


What do you people say?

[Mr. Morden]

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.

[YE]

How are single payer advocates going to justify the existence of the Hyde Amendment? For much of my disputes with the far-left, one major issue that they overlooked is the overturning of women rights. What the single payer could should accomplished first is to repealed the Hyde Amendment, so that every abortion will be covered through health care. It would displace the burdens that hard-working women have to face when dealing with the consequences of reproduction. Funding for abortion would erase the patriarchy and give power to all women in our country.


What do you people say?

The Hyde Amendment is completely unjustifiable.

[Famous Mortimer]

How are single payer advocates going to justify the existence of the Hyde Amendment? For much of my disputes with the far-left, one major issue that they overlooked is the overturning of women rights. What the single payer could should accomplished first is to repealed the Hyde Amendment, so that every abortion will be covered through health care. It would displace the burdens that hard-working women have to face when dealing with the consequences of reproduction. Funding for abortion would erase the patriarchy and give power to all women in our country.


What do you people say?

Under universal healthcare, abortion should be paid for out of a separate fund that you contribute to by checking a box on your taxes.

[Shadows]

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.

[Gass3268]

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[Shadows]

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)

[YE]

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?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Still only 20% of Democratic Senators support something proposed 47 years ago by a Republican Senator. Sad!

http://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/15/archives/medicare-for-all-is-asked-by-javits.html

[Shadows]

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

[Mr. Morden]

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.

Why couldn't that be done the same way that Obamacare already does it with an individual mandate?  SCOTUS already ruled that part constitutional.

[Kingpoleon]

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?

Cantwell, Murray, Wyden, Carper, Nelson, Warner, Cardin, Feinstein, and Heinrich. Don't know about Coons, Durbin, Udall, Casey, Klobuchar, and Kaine.

[Gass3268]

Mazie Hirono has jumped on board.

[publicunofficial]

Mazie Hirono has jumped on board.

And so have Blumenthal and Baldwin

[Shadows]

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.

[Gass3268]

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Not a cosponsor, but this really shows where the wind is blowing now.

[tallguy23]

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Not a cosponsor, but this really shows where the wind is blowing now.

That's big.

[Shadows]

@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

[Dr. Arch]

This is proof that Bernie was the true winner in the long term. Glad to see Democrats are rallying energetically around this. GO GO GO!