When Bernie Sanders made a bid for the Democratic presidential candidacy in 2016 with a pledge of “Medicare For All,” the party establishment (coffers fattened with money from the health insurance industry) claimed that the policy was a nonstarter that would never find popular support.
As it turns out, Medicare For All is one of the most popular campaign positions in living memory.
That’s why more than 60 Democrats in the House of Reps have formed a “Medicare For All” caucus, who will vote in favor of Medicare For All and against anything less than that.
I wonder how many of the same Dems will end up in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive caucus?
But many Democrats appear undeterred. Some point to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation showing that 59 percent support a government health care system for everybody along the lines of Medicaid and Medicare. Progressives also argue that skyrocketing health care costs have made Americans more receptive to ideas that seemed radical in the past.
And it looks like we are going to have a chance to find out if they are right. With the sign-on by some of the biggest names in the party, Medicare for All could be a plank of the Democratic Party’s official platform in 2020 and at the center of the debate when the party takes on President Donald Trump.
Exclusive: Over 60 House Democrats are forming a Medicare for All Caucus [Alex Thompson/Vice]
(via Naked Capitalism)
(Image: Molly Adams, CC-BY)