So the Catholic Church is up-in-arms about being required to make sure they include birth control coverage if they provide health insurance to people who work in Catholic Hospitals and other religious institutions.
I keep seeing Catholic liberal men, like Mark Sheilds and EJ Dionne, trotted out to call this is a political disaster for the White House.
And I keep seeing research-based responses based onpoll data showing that Americans basically agree with the decision.
But right now the debate misses the point entirely -- which is that there shouldn't even be a debate over this subject at all.
Why? Because Americans shouldn't be relying on their employer for health coverage in the first place.
Every American should be able to get coverage via a single-payer system like Medicare - not have to rely on the whims of an employer.
It's a simple response to this debate.
Virtually every other industrialized nation in the world does it roughly this way, and we should, too. it's why you don't see other countries, even highly religious ones, having this absurd debate about how the health of people who work for religiously-connected institutions should be treated under the law.
And here's the kicker: Everyone would love it if we went to something like Medicare-for-All!
- People on Medicare love it. People under 65 would love it, too.
- It would be significantly cheaper. With administrative costs so much cheaper, and bargaining power so much greater, it would save everyone money in the aggregate.
- It would unleash a wave of innovation, as Americans would no longer have to avoid risk and stay in jobs just for the insurance.
- And if an employer doesn't want to provide birth control, they wouldn't have to, because they would no longer be responsible for providing basic health care to the people they employ.
It seems so obvious to me -- the solution is to end the employer-based system and move to a common-sense one where we as a society protect the health of our citizens in the most fair and efficient way possible.
But alas our corporate-controlled media has decided that Medicare-For-All is not within the Overton Window so it can't be discussed, even when it's the obvious solution to this debate.
Too bad because this is a teachable moment - the lesson of this debate is that a system that relies on employer-provided coverage causes serious problems for employers and employees alike. And we'll only solve it if we move to single-payer.