You may change your mind after you read this.

[krcgtv.com]

@kensmile4u

I'm aware of the task forces and the support of notable progressives. It's all meaningless. It doesn't change the fact that Biden does not represent me, does not support my policies, and does not share my values.

He refuses to support a rational healthcare system and therefor his ideology is in direct opposition to mine.

@RoboGraham That's not true! He has always supported a rational healthcare system that gives everyone a choice including a national option which will be similar to or part of medicare based on what I know. What could be more democratic than that? So he does represent any healthcare choice you want.

@RoboGraham I agree with you. But this idea of forcing everyone to participate in a national healthcare system is too disruptive. It has failed now for a second election cycle. I think a more pragmatic way to accomplish your goal is to let those who like their current system to keep it for now. But over time these people will come to see the better value in a national option and they will migrate to it. This will cause the old insurance profit system to fade from existence.

@kensmile4u

Well I'm glad that we agree on the goal. Thing is, I don't think the public option is the way to get there and I have very serious doubts about Biden.

A public option would be nice but it would probably be doomed to failure. It will inevitably be underfunded and dysfunctional because the people who choose the public option will mostly be those unable to afford decent adequate insurance on the private market so the public option will consist of the people in most need of care and least able to pay. Add to that the fact that there are people in government who will actively undermine it at every turn and it will struggle to function properly. This will mean that care provided will be of lesser quality and wait times will be long. This will cause the public option to be viewed as inferior healthcare. It will develop a bad reputation and become known as the desperate option for poor people who can't afford good healthcare. It will do the opposite of what we want. People will choose the private market insurance over the public option more and more as time goes on and it will calcify that notion that government run health insurance is inherently inferior and dysfunctional.

A fully single payer system will be less vulnerable to these issues because everyone will be participating in it. It won't be viewed as second class healthcare because it is the only option, everyone, rich and poor alike, will get their care through it. It will be less likely to be underfunded because it's funding is coming from everyone and we all know that things that the rich participate in get more funding. With the wealthy being involved in this single payer system, funding is much more likely to be adequate. It's easy to cut funding for programs that only poor marginalized people depend on but you try and cut it for something that wealthier people need and you will suffer politically. Of course there will still be people in government who will attempt to destroy it but that is much harder to do when everyone depends on it, not just poor people who have no voice. I think this will be much more likely to develop a good reputation, gain the trust of the population, and have the resiliency to function despite attempts to destroy it by our political enemies.

I don't believe that it is the disruptive nature of implementing a single payer system which is preventing it from being created. It has majority support. Most people understand it's benefits and want it implemented. Many are convinced that it can't be done and so we must compromise and do it incrementally. I think the true reason it is so delayed is because the politicians have been bought by the insurance companies. I don't believe that Biden truly wants to move forward toward that single payer goal. He is loyal to the corporations who fund him, not to the people. He was second in command when we had a golden opportunity. We controlled the entire federal government with a super-majority in the Senate and the best that Biden and Obama could do was to give us conservative Romneycare. What a joke. If they wanted single payer or a public option, that was the time, they could have done it but they didn't because it is not their intention to do away with the insurance middle men who get between us and our healthcare professionals. They gave us reform which required all of us to buy from the for profit corporations. That shows you where their priorities lay.

The only thing standing between us and rational healthcare reform is conservative politicians such as Biden and we will never get a single payer, or even public option, system by voting for such crooked people.

@RoboGraham You are making some assumptions about public opinions that are not supported by available evidence. Here is a link to a comprehensive study by the Kaiser Family Foundation which Illustrates that healthcare is a partisan and nuanced issue. The chart on Figure 14 shows the broadest support among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents for an incremental or buy in approach. As I said before, IMO these attitudes will change when voters see how well a Medicare for all system can work.

[kff.org]