Hillary Destroying Medicare to Save ObamaCare

“The narrative” is that Sanders is pulling Clinton left, and one example is Clinton coming out in favor of a “public option” for Medicare. Unfortunately for the narrators, Clinton’s proposal is insultingly unserious, the “public option” has always been a defense against single payer rather than a step towards it, the Democrat nomenklatura remains as implacably opposed to single payer as it has ever been, and, most important of all, the “public option” — as a neo-liberal, market-based solution — could have a significant negative impact on Medicare. In other words, Clinton attempt to save ObamaCare politically by supporting a “public option” is — to mix metaphors terribly — a poisoned chalice for the health care system, and not an olive branch to the left. Let’s get the narrative out of the way first, and then treat the rest of these topics in order...

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Clinton’s attempt to save ObamaCare politically by adding on the “public option” is a bait and switch operation designed to eliminate the threat of Medicare for All. It worked that way in 2009, and Clinton’s pulling the same play out of the Democrat playbook for 2016. In, fact Clinton’s “public option,” despite her wonky reputation, is so skimpy on detail is to be insultingly unserious, exactly like the “public option” in 2009. The Democratic Establishment remains implacably opposed to Medicare for All, and if by some miracle they manage to pass the “public option,” that will undermine the existing Medicare program, which is no doubt their goal. On the life-and-death issue of providing health care to all Americans, there is more that divides us than unites us.

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