Paul Krugman, in a NYT column on Aug. 7th, 2017,
concludes that Democrats should not take up the fight for single-payer Medicare
for All. While his arguments are weak, they still need to be refuted, as they will be taken up by those who oppose any progressive agenda as the way
forward for the Democratic Party.
Krugman states that having won a great victory in the battle
against “repeal and replace”, progressives should move on to more important
issues. More important issues??? WTF. What could be more important than an
issue which affects 20% of the economy and every single man, woman and child in
the country? An issue that is the largest cause of personal bankruptcy, pain
and premature death in the US. An issue which has resulted in spiraling
increases in the federal budget.
And since when is a temporary stand-off a great victory? Krugman
just declares victory and says, let’s go home. Is it possible that he thinks
the Republicans will not come back with a war of attrition, a death by a
thousand cuts? I guess he doesn’t read the newspaper he writes for.
The problem he wants us to ignore is that the two main
progressive goals for healthcare reform, universal coverage and controlling
rapidly rising healthcare costs, were NOT accomplished by the ACA. Simply tweaking
it, will not solve these problems. It will leave in place an inefficient and
wasteful system with the power in the hands of the private insurance industry
and corporate medical providers like Big Pharma.
For some reason (I’ll leave that to your imagination)
Krugman wants to leave the insurance industry in control. He supports this by
saying that the insurance industry helped save the ACA from Republican plans. Of
course, they did; they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them. But they
are also not going to resist the changes short of repeal, that the Republicans
are likely to enact. Krugman apparently forgets that the insurance industry
will always protect its bottom line, not the health of the insured.
On the political level, winning the war over healthcare will
require a clear and concise alternative to “repeal and replace”. The goal of “making
incremental improvements to the ACA” just doesn’t get it. “Medicare for All”
does.
Krugman is right about one thing – getting to single payer
will take a lot of work. It will require Democrats to take back the federal
government. The actual way in which it will be accomplished needs to be worked out.
But as the goal for healthcare reform, it can provide a rallying point (along
with several other issues) for Democrats to win back political power.
We are faced with an historic opportunity to fight for the solution
to our healthcare crisis. A majority of Americans support the idea that the
government should guarantee affordable healthcare insurance to all. The
Republicans have been totally discredited; the Democrats have a chance to offer
a real alternative.
If we walk away from this opportunity, who knows when it will
come again.
