Washington State Can Have a Single-Payer Health Care System by 2020. These Candidates Will Champion

Washington State Can Have a Single-Payer Health Care System by 2020. These Candidates Will Champion It.


As I've mentioned several times in the past: we can have a single-payer health care system in Washington state by 2020 if we want it. The plan requires Democrats to increase their majority in Washington's legislature this November and to retake control of Congress and the Presidency at the federal level.

This will be tremendously difficult! But it's possible. The only way we're going to get there is if we vote for Democrats who will champion bills like David Frockt's SB 5701 (or the House's version, HB 1026), which would help establish a framework for implementing single-payer in the state. And the only way Democrats are going to champion single-payer in Washington state is if you call them up and tell them you need it in order to survive and still buy a can of beans every now and then.

According to answers from a questionnaire conducted by local single-payer advocates, the following candidates running for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and the Washington Legislature said they’d vote YES on state-based universal health care legislation similar to HB 1026, and/or would co-sponsor state-based universal health care legislation.

But saying they "support" state-based single payer and actually running on state-based single-payer are two different things. So I called up a few candidates to see how that message is playing out in the field. Spoiler: constituents are into it.

Read more: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/08/02/30093713/washington-state-can-have-a-single-payer-health-care-system-by-2020-these-candidates-will-champion-it