Experts have confirmed (contra Krugman’s denial that such experts exist) that Bernie’s health care numbers do add up. But that is just part of the story. A lot of experts who now oppose Bernie’s plan were advocating for a single payer plan before Bernie officially came out with his own plan. As one notable example, in the image above is a November 2013 tweet from Ezra Klein advocating for single payer to replace America’s absurd health care system. But when Bernie suggested such, here he is, saying Bernie’s plan won’t work. Here is what Paul Krugman said about Bernie’s plan:
As far as I can tell, every serious progressive policy expert on either health care or financial reform who has weighed in on the primary seems to lean Hillary. This could be because being in the trenches of the health care fight gives you an acute sense of the possible,
So it isn’t possible, eh Paul? Why would you say that? Well, back when he was advocating for single payer as the best option available, Krugman said that single payer is way better, BUT... the reason not to go to single payer right away was that you probably (he gave one example of it being done without it) needed an intermediate step. Roll tape:
What’s weird about that is that Ezra also said there should be an intermediate step. But Ezra said that Obamacare is the intermediate step. In 2010 he called it single payer by attrition. Here he is from Netroots 2009:
This is the key statement:
I would like to sign the insurance companies out of existence with my pen. It would be sweet. But it’s never going to happen in this country where we have sent a multi-billion dollar industry employing tens of thousands of people in every district in America out in one shot…They have a sneaky strategy, the point of which is to put in place something that over time, the natural incentive in its own market [is] to move it to single payer.
President Obama has pretty much said the same thing (apologies that this video is made by Republicans, but it does point out what I am talking about):
So we have had step one. Why not take the next step? Obamacare was unpopular in November 2013, when Klein said single payer was better than our absurd health care system. It hit record unpopularity in 2014 and 2015. And it is unpopular now. President Obama envisioned (see video above) that it might take 10 to 15 years to make the transition to single payer. Perhaps sooner would be better than later?
We all know single payer would be better. We’ve had the intermediate step that experts talked about. Let’s try taking the next one.
