Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton rolled out her official campaign healthcare platform. Much fuss is being made over the fact that it includes support for a Public Option, although as I noted at the time, that's hardly news...since she's consistently supported one since at least 2008.
As for the rest of the proposal, there's a whole lot to like...even if your name is Bernie Sanders.
In my latest exclusive entry over at healthinsurance.org, I take a look at the nine major tenets of Hillary's healthcare proposal. Check it out!
(My apologies for the “link tease”...given my rather tumultuous history with the Bernie/Hillary Single Payer/Obamacare wars last winter/spring, I obviously figured the dKos community might like to hear my thoughts on this development, but I’m not really supposed to cross-post my hi.org entries, so I figure folks can read it there and then comment back here).
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UPDATE: Jibbers Crabst on a stick. I just posted an entire entry praising the fact that Hillary and Bernie have buried the hatchet on healthcare by agreeing on a compromise set of proposals...and a bunch of people here still won’t let it go.
Amazingly, some seem to think I’m belittling Hillary, while others think I’m ripping on Bernie...and as far as I can tell, none of these folks seem to have actually read the piece yet.
Get it straight, folks:
- Hillary is serious...and has been since day one whether anyone thinks so or not.
- Bernie has come on board now that she’s beefed up her proposals further...and good on him for doing so.
If I’m pissing off both die-hard Hillary and die-hard Bernie supporters, I must be doing something right.
UPDATE: Oh for heaven’s sake. It seems that some folks are under the impression that because I said that Hillary “isn’t screwing around”, it somehow means I’m suggesting that she wasn’t serious about healthcare reform before Bernie decided she was. Anyone who’s familiar with my posting history here the past 6 months knows damned well that I meant no such thing...and in fact I posted this diary on my own site just two days ago:
Clinton FORMALLY backs Public Option...as she's indicated all along.
Hey, remember back in February when I pointed out that Hillary Clinton has supported a public option since at least 2009?
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At the time, I was told by many Bernie Sanders supporters that she's "changed her mind" since then and that she "wasn't serious" about a public option (even though there had been no indication that this was the case at all).
Then, a few weeks later, Clinton brought up the PO again, though she wasn't looking at doing so at the federal level since doing it at the state level would be far easier to push through politically:
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Hogwash, said many Bernie supporters; she's only doing this as a gimmick because she's caught up in a heated primary battle with Sen. Sanders!
Cut to May 9th, at which point Clinton was clearly in the driver's seat in the Presidential primary:
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...and so forth.
In short: Relax, people. This development is a good thing.
UPDATE: OK, everyone, you win: I’ve changed the headline so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of either Bernie supporters or Hillary supporters.
I’m keeping the “Bernie’s On Board” sign, however.
p.s. for anyone wandering in late, the original title read:
#Bernie’sOnBoard: Sanders finally accepts that Hillary’s not screwing around on healthcare