Free Republic

A video from 1987 shows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has not always considered single-payer health care a slam dunk for progressive reformers. […] “You want to guarantee that all people have access to health care as you do in Canada,” Sanders said. “But I think what we understand is that unless we change the funding system and the control mechanism in this country to do that—for example, if we expanded Medicaid [to] everybody,” Sanders added. “Give everybody a Medicaid card—we would be spending such an astronomical sum of money that, you know, we would bankrupt the nation.”

President Trump vowed to veto Sen. Bernie Sanders' bill to create a government-run healthcare system if it passed the House and Senate. "Bernie Sanders is pushing hard for a single payer healthcare plan - a curse on the U.S. & its people..." Trump tweeted Thursday afternoon "...I told Republicans to approve healthcare fast or this would happen. But don't worry, I will veto because I love our country & its people." The Vermont Independent introduced the bill Wednesday with the backing of 17 Democratic senators, including potential presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of...

Democrats may be hoping to gain a midterm wave. They may be hoping even more to boot Donald J. Trump from the White House in 2020. The president’s response to the Charlottesville violence, the rolling back of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals, Russian collusion hysteria, the slow pace of enacting his agenda—all of these things have Democrats grinning, expect that they shouldn’t. The party’s own operatives and data crunchers have run through the numbers based on focus groups, and Democrats are still heading for the electoral ditch. They still have yet to mount an effective attack against the...

Sarai was 25 years old when she died of Wilson’s disease, an inherited disorder that causes liver failure. A liver transplant could have cured her, but she was uninsured and was denied an appointment at two prominent Chicago transplant hospitals, including my own. Sarai’s plight was brought to my attention when a local religious group held a hunger strike advocating transplant access for Sarai and other uninsured patients. When she died, her congregation marched seven miles, holding her photograph and lugging coffins emblazoned with her name, to launch a sit-in in front of Northwestern University Hospital. Her death certificate named...

Public support for single-payer health care is growing—in fact, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll in July found a majority of Americans support it—but that increase comes with an important caveat. Most Americans only want government-run health care until they find out that it means the government will run their health care. I thought about that this morning while reading J.D. Tuccille's excellent piece asking, "Are You Sure You Want Medicare For All?" He walks through the various ways government-run health care seems to be appealing—it means families no longer have to bear the cost of heartbreaking medical disasters on their...

They can get you now, or get you later . . . Fifteen senators, including 2020 hopefuls like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, are co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care bill. But even some of those not signing on have plans to eventually convert the country to single payer. On today’s Morning Joe, Dem Senator Chris Murphy [CT] described his plan, which Politico has called “stealthy single-payer.” Under it, people would be given the option of buying into Medicare or remaining with private insurance. Murphy expressed the belief that: “Given that choice, consumers would choose Medicare, and it would allow...

The Left can't allow itself to be consumed by debates about antifa. We need a proactive program and patient organizing. The events in Charlottesville have remained in the headlines for the last few weeks for a variety of reasons. Surprise at the audacity of a torch-light procession of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan sympathizers, and “alt-rightists” in an American city, coupled with the murder of social justice activist Heather Heyer during a counterdemonstration, fueled the initial coverage. President Trump’s abhorrent response to the tragedy and local struggles against Confederate statues kept it alive. And frequently dimwitted debates about the merits of...

Prominent Democrats are increasingly riled by attacks from Bernie Sanders' supporters, whose demands for ideological purity are hurting the party ahead of the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, they say. But it’s not just the outside agitators that Democratic lawmakers, operatives and activists are annoyed with: They’re tired of what they see as the Vermont senator’s hesitance to confront his own backers, either in public or through back channels. Tensions boiled over recently when a handful of Sanders loyalists bashed freshman Sen. Kamala Harris — a rising star in the party and potential 2020 hopeful — as an establishment...

Next week, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce his long-awaited single-payer health care bill with a cadre of the Democratic 2020 prospects expected to sign on as co-sponsors. Not long afterward, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, another potential 2020 candidate, will propose an alternative: Allowing individuals and businesses to buy into Medicare. Both ideas have, at times, been labeled "Medicare for all." But their differences also offer a glimpse at what's likely to be a defining debate within the Democratic Party in its next nominating contest: A full shift to a government health insurance system versus a partial step away from...

As the GOP’s latest, half-hearted effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act crashed and burned this summer, the Left celebrated. President Obama’s signature policy lives. Still, it’s not at all certain that it won’t soon succumb to natural causes. As insurers continue to flee the Obamacare markets, choices are reduced, plans are canceled, and premiums skyrocket, we’re left with a status quo that appears unsustainable.If replacing Obamacare is not a matter of “if” but “when,” the billion-dollar question is: what will that replacement look like? With Republicans floundering and much of their congressional delegation too cowardly to give free-market...

According to DNC Vice Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) secretly supports Medicare for all. The video of Ellison, first reported by the Daily Caller, shows him speaking before a local Democratic party meeting in Minnesota last Wednesday. "I’m signed onto H.R. 676 which is a single-payer health care act," Ellison said. "They call it Medicare for all. Yeah, universal health care. Real single-payer health care. I’m on that." Ellison stopped to explicitly ask if he was being recorded before explaining that Pelosi backed this bill as well. "You may have heard that...

Remember Jonathan Gruber?  The loathsome, contemptuous architect of Obamacare has been caught out by Vermont's attorney general for corruption in a fraudulent billing scheme.  According to the Daily Caller, Gruber sent out double-invoices and invoices for work that was never done in a disgusting scheme to foist single-payer insurance onto Vermont a couple years earlier.  The program was so bad that its left-wing governor scrapped it as something that would never work. The Daily Caller writes: Donovan, the attorney general and still another Democrat, said his office determined that Gruber did, in fact, violate the Vermont Civil False Claims Act, according to the Herald. Specifically, investigators concluded that...

While some Americans, including politicians, continue to push for single-payer healthcare, a Canadian is helping people in his country get care in America – because the healthcare system where he lives, he says, "simply does not work." As many people know, Canada has single-payer healthcare. That means the government runs and controls the delivery of all healthcare. Under that system, people wanting plastic surgery – for example – would foot the bill; but procedures, including cardiac bypass, can be done, albeit not always in a timely manner. Will liberals in America ever be convinced that single-payer (government-run) healthcare isn't the...

Every few years, the media gets low on ammo and decides they’re going to make a collective push to talk about bringing a single-payer healthcare system to the United States. And every few years, people who understand economics and business have to point out to them that it won’t work. This is one of those times. What is Single-Payer Healthcare, Anyway? When a term gets used so frequently for so long, it’s easy for there to be some misunderstanding. While the idea of single-payer healthcare gets thrown around a lot, would you be surprised that many people don’t even...

The death of little Charlie Gard in England's single-payer health care system should be a lesson to the millions of people advocating for such a system here in the United States.So many aspects of that case horrified me. It wasn't that the government said that it could no longer justify spending additional money on Charlie's care; that's to be expected in a system of rationed care (which is what single-payer is).No, it was that Charlie's parents were forbidden from taking him elsewhere for care at their own expense. In a very real sense, Chris Gard and Connie Yates lost de...

Longtime nurse and union president, Cathy Glasson, is offering a clear vision of how bold, progressive policies can improve the lives of average Iowans. Glasson is exploring the run for governor in a swing state, which in 2016 voted in favor of Trump, but also Obama in 2008 and 2012. In the following Q&A, Glasson talks universal health care, raising the minimum wage, and how she can improve the life of the average Iowan. Q: Why are you considering a run for governor? I’m exploring a run for Governor because I’m tired of watching working people in this state get...

With the September deadline for insurers to decide whether they are in or out of the Obamacare exchanges fast approaching, some insurers are opting to get out now. Aetna announced it was getting out of the Obamacare business in May. Today, the company announced it was leaving the one exchange where it had considered staying because of a Medicaid contract. From the Washington Examiner: The company said during an earnings call that it was withdrawing from the exchange in Nevada, the last state it had considered staying in. Aetna was leaving the possibility open because it was applying for...

Another family in the UK is fighting to keep doctors from forcing their sick baby off of life support. From The Mirror story: Charlie Gard supporters are rallying round the family of a seriously ill little boy as his parents face a battle with medics to keep him alive. Tiny Alfie Evans in being treated at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and suffers from a mystery condition staff are struggling to diagnose. The 14-month-old family are hoping to find pioneering treatment for their little boy abroad. Alfie has been in a coma in the hospital’s intensive care ward since...

Six month wait for 65-year-old skydiver's glaucoma appointment is 'unacceptable' By JoeBulmer  |  Posted: July 31, 2017 A 65-year-old Devon skydiver suffering with glaucoma has had to wait for months to have his condition looked at and the man's hospital has admitted "patients are waiting longer" to be seen. David Tylcoat, from Burrington near Chulmleigh, is meant to have a routine eye exam every six months to check how his condition is being managed. Two weeks ago David rang the Eye Clinic at North Devon District Hospital to find out why he had not received a notification to come in...

In a Republican-backed effort to single out where Democrats lie on a contentious policy debate, an amendment to create a single-payer health care system failed with no affirmative votes in the Senate Thursday, The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mon.), failed with zero yes votes. Four Democrats and one Independent voted against it, and the remainder of Democrats voted as “present,” to avoid taking a stance on the legislation. Independent Maine Senator Angus King, who voted against the bill, said he did not want to participate in what he thought was a “set up.” “The bill had way too...