To explain: most of the activists with whom I'm close are insisting that their activism focus on obtaining single-payer healthcare out of the current drive for healthcare reform. They're essentially saying that if we obtain anything less than single payer healthcare, we will have failed. And thus they're devoting all their healthcare energy into agitating for single payer.
Yet read the following excerpt from President Obama’s remarks the other day in front of the American Medical Association:
The first thing we need to do is to protect what's working in our health care system. So just in case you didn't catch it the first time, let me repeat: If you like your health care system and your doctor, the only thing reform will mean to you is your health care will cost less. If anyone says otherwise, they are either trying to mislead you or don't have their facts straight….You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package. Again, this is for people who aren't happy with their current plan. If you like what you're getting, keep it. Nobody is forcing you to shift.
… let me also address a illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I'll be honest; there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe -- and I've taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief -- that it's important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States. So when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They're not telling the truth.
I read this as the president having crossed the Rubicon on single payer; if single-payer isn’t dead now, the best that can be said is that it’s on palliative care.
You may disagree with our President’s priorities, but it seems to me that he remains a rather brilliant strategist.
Even Dr. Howard Dean, our former party chairman & hardly a right-wing tool, recently noted:
People may not like the health care system, but they like their doctor or hospital. President Obama's plan is realistic. Even in Britain, where medicine really is socialized [doctors offices and hospitals are publicly owned] 15% of health care dollars go to private insurance. Private insurance isn't going away.... (From http://www.yesmagazine.org/svgblog/2009/06/howard-dean-on-single-payer-health-care.html ; again, emphasis mine.)
Interestingly, I've noted that a lot of these lefties who are practicing a "single payer or bust" strategy are seem to be supporters of a group called MoveOn.org . Yet when it comes to getting a healthcare plan that has a real chance of passing Congress, they won't move on!
C'mon, fellow Dems...get with the program!
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