Despite polling consistently showing that voters are deeply concerned about medical care and its costs, neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris is offering a sweeping vision of health care reform.
I was so disappointed when Kamala came out strong for Medicare For All and then pretty much immediately caved and walked it back.
I have a strong suspicion that there is enormous pressure from the business world to keep the healthcare system the way it is. I’d bet almost anything that the instant healthcare is no longer tied to employment there is going to be a mass exodus of people from their jobs, and an absolute explosion of people starting their own businesses. I mean, I’ve had about half a dozen good scalable business ideas waiting and ready to go for years now, and the only reason I haven’t pursued them is because it would probably mean giving up my health insurance. I can’t possibly be alone in that.
And I bet if we got socialized health care, a lot of the problems we have right now with suppressed wages and poor working conditions would suddenly have a way of working themselves out.
I agree with most of what you say, and holy shit it would be absolutely amazing if we un-tethered health insurance from employment, but I also know that M4A is dead on arrival until you get a 55+ seat majority in the Senate. I think that’s the reality Harris sees at this point, and [baseless opinion forthcoming] I think she (and others) had more flexibility arguing in favor of it in the 2020 primary because they had reason to believe that the pandemic health scare might potentially swing a sizeable Dem majority into Congress the same way the GFC did in 2008. Once that didn’t happen, I think the reality of our situation settled in and they started to grapple with the fact that Obamacare is about as far out on a limb as they’re going to get in the short term.
I was so disappointed when Kamala came out strong for Medicare For All and then pretty much immediately caved and walked it back.
I have a strong suspicion that there is enormous pressure from the business world to keep the healthcare system the way it is. I’d bet almost anything that the instant healthcare is no longer tied to employment there is going to be a mass exodus of people from their jobs, and an absolute explosion of people starting their own businesses. I mean, I’ve had about half a dozen good scalable business ideas waiting and ready to go for years now, and the only reason I haven’t pursued them is because it would probably mean giving up my health insurance. I can’t possibly be alone in that.
And I bet if we got socialized health care, a lot of the problems we have right now with suppressed wages and poor working conditions would suddenly have a way of working themselves out.
I agree with most of what you say, and holy shit it would be absolutely amazing if we un-tethered health insurance from employment, but I also know that M4A is dead on arrival until you get a 55+ seat majority in the Senate. I think that’s the reality Harris sees at this point, and [baseless opinion forthcoming] I think she (and others) had more flexibility arguing in favor of it in the 2020 primary because they had reason to believe that the pandemic health scare might potentially swing a sizeable Dem majority into Congress the same way the GFC did in 2008. Once that didn’t happen, I think the reality of our situation settled in and they started to grapple with the fact that Obamacare is about as far out on a limb as they’re going to get in the short term.