Healthcare

Single-Payer Pragmatism

I'm very enthusiastic to the point of being obsessive about the Obama administration's push for a public health insurance option.

That said, I don't think the radical change embodied in such a proposal has fully sunk in. A public option would be an enormously historic step along the lines of Social Security and Medicare -- a step I never thought was possible in my lifetime, considering the magnitude of political influence wielded by the insurance companies. Whenever I think about healthcare reform, in fact, I can't help but to recall that Bulworth was assassinated because of healthcare. Extreme example, yes, but that's what pops into my melon.

And knowing the powerful resistance to a public option that we're sure to see very soon, it's obvious that a single-payer system, while being the ultimate goal, will quite literally be impossible within our current system.

But Bernie Sanders has introduced a really good compromise. I doubt it will pass, but it's this kind of pragmatic, incremental approach that will ultimate lead us from the current criminal system, to a public option, to single-payer.