I’m a Bernie guy. I think many of his ideas are great and he is as honest a politician as one can find, which is much needed. I’ve read analyses that Bernie has released that his plan will benefit the economy (though I guess this is disputed). What Hillary has not said, and should if she was smart about this is this- There are between 460,000 to 2.5 million people working in the health insurance field. (hard to know exact figures). Would’t Medicare for all eliminate all (or most of the jobs) and cause massive unemployment? Would this happen immediately or would it be phased out? Immediate would be dangerous as it would cause massive unemployment (I realize though a new government agency would start which would hire thousands). Phase out is risky because a change in Congress can put that at risk (but hard as the Republicans have not been able to supplant Obamacare).
Moreover,what happens to retail rental space? Would large skyscrapers in the cities be devoid of tenants? What happens to advertising dollars the health insurance companies spend (not good as it raises costs but taking it away does affect the economy)? What happens to publicly traded companies, such as Aetna, a 35 billion dollar company? Are they bought out? Are the share holders SOL and their shares become worthless? What happens to companies with electronic medical records? Are they out of business and a government EMR is used?
If Hillary were smart- she would attack the idealism in concrete terms. Pin Bernie down on the specifics. How will he do this? Is he telling every employee of insurance companies they will be unemployed? How will he get a Republican Congress to support it? The disconnect I think Hillary has with the American people is that she does not point out in simple terms why her rival’s plans cannot work.
I think a tactic in the next debate should be to ask Bernie these questions. I do not know the history of universal healthcare in other companies- how it came to be etc… knowing that would be relevant. As a doctor, I think universal coverage would be great but also can’t fathom how we could transition to this in the ways that Bernie describes