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Democrats shouldn’t be playing defense right now, because a defensive stance does not give voters the impression that one is fighting for them. With the demise of Trumpcare (and with 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 calculation: Obamacare is expensive. Republicans have failed to come up with a viable plan. I (Trump) will now send 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, and President Trump needs to boost his overall poll numbers. Trump voters have a tendency to twist themselves into pretzels to justify whatever change in position he presents, so 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 the issue. As recently as May, he pointed out to the Australian prime minister that his country’s single-payer health care system was better than America's health care system.
The reality is that single-payer Medicare for all is America's only long-term health care option, and the American punditry is starting to talk about it.
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 Charles Krauthammer of Fox News is even more explicit. He believes America will have single payer sooner rather 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 seems as though many who would never have taken single payer seriously are now coming to the conclusion that market-based health insurance is untenable. There’s only a small sect within the Republican Party remaining that still feels 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 who are decidedly on the very progressive side, they all refused to back it.
But 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 he can, in fact, pass a health care bill, and it is evident that 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. That would guarantee Donald Trump a second term, and an identity as the savior of the United States health care system.
In other words, just like Donald Trump triangulated American voters by mixing in 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.
For starters, Democrats can provide a narrative that starts the process of immediately improving Obamacare's flaws in the short term. Then, Democratic legislators can create a credible transition plan that includes removing the unnecessary middleman who skims portions of our premiums to enrich a few without providing any value to Americans.
And repeat it as often as necessary: that system is known as single-payer Medicare for all.