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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDid Democrats jump the gun with single-payer splash?
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/19/bernie-sanders-single-payer-obamacare-242894Last week, a group of Senate Democrats rallied behind single-payer health care at a splashy news conference. This week, the same group is scrambling to beat back the GOP's latest Obamacare repeal blitz.
The contrast shows the chasm between the two parties approach to health care: Republicans claim that Bernie Sanders Medicare for All pitch fueled their revived repeal effort, an argument that even Democratic single-payer foes dismiss as untrue. Yet some Democrats wish more attention had been paid to protecting the Affordable Care Act before some of the party's biggest names turned to single payer.
It's also a reminder that in Washington you can never underestimate the power of a president, even if they don't always win. President Donald Trump wanted one last shot at repealing Obamacare, and Democrats are now struggling to preserve a victory they thought they'd already secured.
I thought that anyone who believed that you should take your eye off the ball before Sept. 30 wasnt being smart, said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who does not support single-payer. So it doesnt surprise me that this is coming back.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) acknowledged that maybe the single-payer rollout had been premature, recalling a Methodist minister who once advised him as governor that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
In this case the main thing is stabilizing the [Obamacare] exchanges, so people in every state, every county, can have better health insurance at a better cost, said Carper, who has not signed on to Sanders bill. Thats what we should be about right now.
Sanders' single-payer plan drew support from no fewer than five fellow potential challengers to Trump in 2020. Liberal activists crowed that any Democrat who wants the party's next presidential nod would have to support a path to universal health care.
he same cast of liberal luminaries, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), is now turning to stoking grass-roots fury about the new Republican repeal plan.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the minority whip, said it remains to be seen whether Democrats shifted too quickly to debating single-payer even as Obamacare repeal was still lurking.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were crafting their latest version of a repeal measure even as Bernie was working on his press conference on single payer, Durbin added, "so its been around a while.
Though no Democratic senator faulted single payers supporters, some in the party lamented the choice to unveil single payer before the GOP reached its deadline to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority vote. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are working hard to lock down Republican support for repeal, and they're close. A climactic vote could come next week, as the clock runs out on any hope of getting rid of Obamacare.
Doing it when he did it was a gift to the repealers, one Democratic strategist said of Sanders single-payer push. It took focus off them and put it on us at an unhelpful time.
One Senate Democratic aide wondered whether the single-payer splash could have waited until next month, when the GOP's window to repeal Obamacare with 50 votes will have closed.
Its the timing thats the problem, the aide said. If this was introduced Oct. 1, thatd be one thing, but this is almost perfectly timed to make it harder to defend the ACA.
We should be trying to save the most progressive health care overhaul in decades, because its really at risk. But instead, theyre riling up the base over single payer, making the perfect the enemy of the good at the worst possible moment, the person added.
A liberal activist whose group supports single-payer health care sounded a similar note, saying that the timing of Sanders rollout had handed Republicans a lot of space to quietly twist arms on the Cassidy-Graham repeal plan.
The contrast shows the chasm between the two parties approach to health care: Republicans claim that Bernie Sanders Medicare for All pitch fueled their revived repeal effort, an argument that even Democratic single-payer foes dismiss as untrue. Yet some Democrats wish more attention had been paid to protecting the Affordable Care Act before some of the party's biggest names turned to single payer.
It's also a reminder that in Washington you can never underestimate the power of a president, even if they don't always win. President Donald Trump wanted one last shot at repealing Obamacare, and Democrats are now struggling to preserve a victory they thought they'd already secured.
I thought that anyone who believed that you should take your eye off the ball before Sept. 30 wasnt being smart, said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who does not support single-payer. So it doesnt surprise me that this is coming back.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) acknowledged that maybe the single-payer rollout had been premature, recalling a Methodist minister who once advised him as governor that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
In this case the main thing is stabilizing the [Obamacare] exchanges, so people in every state, every county, can have better health insurance at a better cost, said Carper, who has not signed on to Sanders bill. Thats what we should be about right now.
Sanders' single-payer plan drew support from no fewer than five fellow potential challengers to Trump in 2020. Liberal activists crowed that any Democrat who wants the party's next presidential nod would have to support a path to universal health care.
he same cast of liberal luminaries, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), is now turning to stoking grass-roots fury about the new Republican repeal plan.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the minority whip, said it remains to be seen whether Democrats shifted too quickly to debating single-payer even as Obamacare repeal was still lurking.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were crafting their latest version of a repeal measure even as Bernie was working on his press conference on single payer, Durbin added, "so its been around a while.
Though no Democratic senator faulted single payers supporters, some in the party lamented the choice to unveil single payer before the GOP reached its deadline to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority vote. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are working hard to lock down Republican support for repeal, and they're close. A climactic vote could come next week, as the clock runs out on any hope of getting rid of Obamacare.
Doing it when he did it was a gift to the repealers, one Democratic strategist said of Sanders single-payer push. It took focus off them and put it on us at an unhelpful time.
One Senate Democratic aide wondered whether the single-payer splash could have waited until next month, when the GOP's window to repeal Obamacare with 50 votes will have closed.
Its the timing thats the problem, the aide said. If this was introduced Oct. 1, thatd be one thing, but this is almost perfectly timed to make it harder to defend the ACA.
We should be trying to save the most progressive health care overhaul in decades, because its really at risk. But instead, theyre riling up the base over single payer, making the perfect the enemy of the good at the worst possible moment, the person added.
A liberal activist whose group supports single-payer health care sounded a similar note, saying that the timing of Sanders rollout had handed Republicans a lot of space to quietly twist arms on the Cassidy-Graham repeal plan.
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Did Democrats jump the gun with single-payer splash? (Original Post)
factfinder_77
Sep 2017
OP
Yes, Lindsey Graham is selling the repeal as it is the last chance to stop 'Bernie's socialized
Demsrule86
Sep 2017
#1
Demsrule86
(68,504 posts)1. Yes, Lindsey Graham is selling the repeal as it is the last chance to stop 'Bernie's socialized
Medicine', I heard it on MSNBC...I knew the single payer bill was a bad idea...I only hope it doesn't cost us healthcare.
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)2. It wont. It cant. The Republican reaction to any Dem healthcare legislation would be the same...
...regardless of when it would be introduced or even lightly discussed. If the ACA is repealed its because Republicans are short-sighted, empathy-lacking, fools. Not because of anything anyone else did. To pretend otherwise is defeatist, scapegoating bullshit.
Well said.
kacekwl
(7,014 posts)9. I think we can do two things at once.
And if this horseshit bill does pass we have to press ahead with options.
democrank
(11,088 posts)3. No
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)5. Careful!
We are not allowed to criticize anything put forward by a certain senator.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)6. Hell no!! Healthcare is a human right!!
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)7. No.
dogman
(6,073 posts)8. Or did he Schumer-Pelosi rapor with T-rump trigger GOP unity?
What is the difference? The GOP are assholes because that is their nature. Why would we let their views dictate ours?
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)10. The timing is definitely off
By endorsing such a major overhaul in healthcare you're implying that the ACA doesn't work.