Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Sanders And Single-Payer; One Last Try On Obamacare Repeal; Building On Victory
The Washington Post: The Biggest Thing Single-Payer Has Going For It
The smartest, savviest people in Washington will tell you Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for all” idea is dead on arrival, a waste of time and energy. But since those same smart, savvy people told you Donald Trump didn’t have a prayer of becoming president, I’d advise keeping an open mind. What the Vermont senator’s bill has going for it is simple: It’s the right thing to do. (Eugene Robinson, 9/14)
The Wall Street Journal: One Last ObamaCare Try
Senator Lindsey Graham admits that when a defense specialist like him feels compelled to roll out a health-care bill, something has gone wrong—and that’s an understatement for the Republican failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The question is whether a last-ditch effort by Sen. Graham and a few colleagues represents an improvement over the Obama Care status quo. The answer is yes. (9/14)
Bloomberg: Democrats Can Build On Their Health-Care Victory
The Republicans' failure to repeal Obamacare has created a political opening. The American public, threatened with the withdrawal of health insurance from millions of people, has largely come to embrace the idea of universal coverage. At such a moment, Democrats are right to advance ideas for building on the gains accomplished by the Affordable Care Act. (9/14)
The Washington Post: How Trump Is Sabotaging The Affordable Care Act In Virginia
Since President Trump took office, he and his administration have expressed their intention to sabotage the Affordable Care Act by creating instability in state insurance markets. As governors and other leaders across the nation warned, the Trump administration’s actions could threaten the health care and indeed the lives of millions of people across our nation. Unfortunately, here in Virginia, we have seen many of those fears come to fruition. (Gov. Terry McAuliffe, 9/14)
The New York Times: Bernie’s Secret G.O.P. Allies
Bernie Sanders’s biggest ally in his push for single-payer health insurance may well be the Republican Party. Yes, Republicans criticized and mocked the “Medicare for all” bill that Sanders released yesterday, and I doubt any Congressional Republicans will support the bill in the foreseeable future. But I do think they are unwittingly helping his cause. (David Leonhardt, 9/14)
The Washington Post: Sanderscare Is All Cheap Politics And Magic Math
But the lesson the Democrats seem to have taken from the 2016 electoral trouncing is that they need to become more like Republicans. Meaning: Abandon thoughtful, detail-oriented bean-counting and attempts to come up with workable solutions grounded in (occasionally unpopular) reality, and instead chant virtue-signaling catchphrases. (Catherine Rampell, 9/14)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Magical Mystery Of Medicare For All
It’s admirable to stand up for what you believe and to try to persuade voters that the nation would be better off with single payer, a $15-an-hour minimum wage and free college. There are reasonable arguments for all three. But all three are political losers outside the liberal base — at least right now. (David D. Haynes, 9/14)
The Guardian: Universal Healthcare In America? Not A Taboo Now, Thanks To Bernie Sanders
Once radical and taboo in mainstream Democratic circles, endorsing universal healthcare coverage is now de rigueur for anyone who seriously wants to run for president on the Democratic side in 2020. Kamala Harris, the California senator who seemed to be taking the Clinton route to the nomination by courting her Hamptons donors, is now co-sponsoring Sanders’ Medicare for All bill. (Ross Barkan, 9/14)
The Charlotte Observer: Medicare For All? First, Some Big Questions
The United States has long needed a real debate about the possibility of the kind of universal healthcare system that has led to some better outcomes in other developed countries. Sen. Bernie Sanders effectively kicked off that debate Wednesday by revealing a “Medicare for All” plan, backed by 15 Democratic Senate colleagues. (9/14)
The New York Times: Politicians, Promises, And Getting Real
On Wednesday Donald Trump demanded that Congress move quickly to enact his tax reform plan. But so far he has not, in fact, offered any such plan. Not only is there no detailed legislative proposal, his administration hasn’t even settled on the basic outlines of what it wants. Meanwhile, 17 Senate Democrats — more than a third of the caucus — have signed on to Bernie Sanders’s call for expanding Medicare to cover the whole population. So far, however, Sanders hasn’t produced either an estimate of how much that would cost or a specific proposal about how to pay for it. I don’t mean to suggest that these cases are comparable: The distinctive Trumpian mix of ignorance and fraudulence has no counterpart among Democrats. Still, both stories raise the question of how much, if at all, policy clarity matters for politicians’ ability to win elections and, maybe more important, to govern. (Paul Krugman, 9/15)
