Harkin: We should have done single payer health reform
By Jose A. DelReal December 3, 2014
“We had the power to do it in a way that would have simplified health care, made it more efficient and made it less costly, and we didn’t do it,” Harkin reportedly told The Hill in a piece published Wednesday. “So I look back and say we should have either done it the correct way or not done anything at all.”
Many of us on here have been saying this for years.
But looking back at the early years of the Obama administration, Harkin said Democrats should have pursued “single-payer right from the get-go or at least put a public option. … We had the votes to do that and we blew it."
Such comments aren't exactly new from Harkin, who has spoken about the ACA with critical optimism in the past. “I like to think of this bill as like a starter home. It is not the mansion of our dreams. But it has a solid foundation ... [and] plenty of room for additions and improvements,” hewrote in the Huffington Post in 2010.
But, but, but…..we were told we can’t have single payer. It’s too hard.
We had the votes to do that and we blew it.
No single payer, no public option. The base walked…...
Harkin — chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — didn't speak directly to the electoral consequences the bill may have had, but he did take issue with the compromises made as the bill was being negotiated.
“There’s this old saying: ‘If you have the votes, vote. If you don’t, talk.’ We had the votes but we talked,” he said.
emphasis mine ~
Sounds like a sitting former senator in Iowa believes that yes, yes we could and should do single payer. We need leadership to take us there again.
#feelthebern
edit: the point of this diary is simply to show it is not only possible but that they had the votes to get it done in the past. if you claim it is not possible, then that is disingenuous to say the very least. his statement contrasts very sharply from Hillary’s current statement on single payer.
edit #2: ironic. my first time on the wreck list and i have to run. Thank You.
i will be back tonight.