What’s Next for Progressives?<br />Moving to single-payer would mean taking away this coverage and imposing new taxes; to make it fly politically you’d have to convince most of these people both<br />that they would save more in premiums than they pay in additional taxes, and that their new coverage would be just as good as the old.<br />C.A., not replace it, although I would strongly support reintroducing some form of public option<br />— a way for people to buy into public insurance — that could eventually lead to single-payer.<br />Other countries provide new parents with extensive paid leave, provide high-quality, subsidized day care for children with working parents<br />and make pre-K available to everyone or almost everyone; we do none of these things.<br />A commitment to universal health coverage — bringing in the people currently falling through Obamacare’s cracks — should definitely be a litmus test.<br />It’s not just about paying off the insurance industry, although getting insurers<br />to buy in to health reform wasn’t foolish, and arguably helped save the A. C.A.<br />Britain has true socialized medicine: The government provides health care directly through the National Health Service.<br />Australia has a single-payer system, basically Medicare for All — it’s even called Medicare.<br />A far more important consideration is minimizing disruption to the 156 million people who currently<br />get insurance through their employers, and are largely satisfied with their coverage.<br />Meanwhile, progressives should move beyond health care and focus on other holes in the U. S. safety net.
