Adapted from John Hooker in response to Wendell Potter’s statement:
“There’s now a chorus of voices, led by Senators Sanders and Warren, that are saying, ‘enough’. An entire generation has grown up hearing the stale health insurance industry talking points (that I helped craft decades ago). And they aren’t fooled! Politicians who keep defending the insurance industry will go down with them when the health care system finally collapses.”
I will repeat myself until I’m unable to write any more. THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS. Wendell Potter is right factually but is playing the role of an activist (and selling books).
If you want to change something, choose Medicare for all who want it (MFAWWI) – also known as the public option. This will do the work without being bombarded with slogans like “socialism” etc. Remember, not so long ago, even some Democrats did not support Obamacare in 2010. They were too afraid of the public reaction when Republicans began bombarding the country with their fraudulent slogans.
We have reached, a “McCarthyism” situation in this country where the number of people becoming irrational is increasing. This is very dangerous. If we do not reform, we will screw up this country for good.
Introducing the government option or MFAWWI will do the dirty work of putting the insurance companies gradually out of work. It will bring the price of pharmaceuticals down because the increasing size of MFAWWI will put pressure on pharmaceutical pricing. It will force re-structuring through market forces and do this at a more manageable pace for society so that it can adapt to this huge change.
There is too much now to disentangle in one fell swoop — particularly while half of the opposing stakeholders will be bombarding a well-meaning single-payer system.
Time to be realistic. The only way to get the whole country to move in a direction of this magnitude (re-structuring one-sixth of the economy) is to have a huge majority convinced that that is what we have to do — like a war effort! We aren’t there yet.
Same for climate change!! Which is even bigger an issue.