{"id":35270,"date":"2019-01-07T11:53:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T19:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35270"},"modified":"2019-01-07T11:53:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T19:53:16","slug":"single-payer-the-struggle-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/07\/single-payer-the-struggle-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Payer: The struggle Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve told you I favor single payer health care, I could take my place with the 0.1% and sniff my imported catnip and lap my sweet Italian cream from jewel-studded golden saucers.  I’m sure we aren’t about to get it.  However, we are going to hold hearings about it in Congress.  The last time that happened was 70 years ago.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0107health_care_human_right\"<\/p>\n

The debate about Medicare for All is about to get more serious \u2015 and more complicated.<\/p>\n

The idea of creating a single national health insurance program for all Americans has been a big topic of political conversation since 2016, when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) touted it during his Democratic presidential campaign. But Medicare for All couldn\u2019t be anything more than a rallying cry as long as Republicans controlled the levers of power in Washington.<\/p>\n

Political circumstances are different now. Democrats hold the House majority and, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s office confirmed to The Washington Post<\/a> on Thursday, at least two committees will hold hearings on Medicare for All this year. Exactly what those hearings<\/a> will entail isn\u2019t clear \u2015 Democratic leaders aren\u2019t saying \u2015 but one focus will be a bill that Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) plans to introduce in the next few weeks. <\/p>\n

Jayapal is a leader of a Medicare for All House caucus that had 78 members<\/a> as of late November and, with an infusion of newly elected Democrats, should soon have more. The new bill<\/a> will be similar<\/a> to one she co-sponsored in the last Congress, which in turn was similar to a bill Sanders introduced in the Senate. <\/p>\n

Jayapal has said she hopes a version will get a floor vote<\/a>, although that seems a long ways off. The committees taking up the proposal initially aren\u2019t actually the ones that would write a health care bill. Even so, the hearings could represent the most serious attention the concept has received on Capitol Hill since the late 1940s<\/a>, when committees took up then-President Harry Truman\u2019s<\/a> similarly designed, but ill-fated national health insurance proposal…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Huffington Post<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

A little over a year ago, Chuck Todd attack-interviewed my Senator, Jeff Merkley [D-OR].  Here’s the video<\/a>:<\/font><\/p>\n