The Path To Medicare for All

How can the U.S. take steps to join the rest of the developed world in adopting single-payer health care?

By Dean Baker, Counterpunch

I have long been a fan of universal Medicare. While some time back I thought we could get there fairly quickly, I became a fan of incrementalist approaches as I watched even much smaller changes like the ACA get bogged down in petty politics and industry lobbying. As bizarre as it seems, Trump’s second term makes me more optimistic about a quicker transition.

There are three reasons for my newfound optimism. The first is the public response to the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United HealthCare. I am not going to in any way endorse violent actions against insurance executives, or anyone else in the industry, but the widespread sympathy for Luigi Mangione, shows considerable hostility towards insurance companies. The era where most people liked their insurance company seems to be behind us.

The second has been the ability of Trump to walk all over long-established norms and rules of conduct. It’s true that Trump has a cult following that will literally buy anything he says or does, and a money-man enforcer in the form of Elon Musk.

But a Democratic president elected on a clear agenda for universal Medicare could look to apply similar pressure on congressional holdouts, if they have established their case in the campaign. If people understand the issues and have given a president a clear mandate for universal Medicare, they have some ability to push recalcitrant senators and Congresspeople.

They can also pull a Trump and threaten to withhold important funding for their state or district. Yeah, this is bullshit politics, but when billionaires can buy elections, there is no point in playing nice. And it doesn’t look like the courts will do much to block this, unless they become even more political in applying different standards for Republicans than Democrats.

The third reason is that Trump’s looney tariff-fest shows that people are not as allergic to taxes as has generally been believed. Trump has imposed one of the most massive tax increases in the last half century with his tariffs, likely on the order of $300 billion a year, or $2,200 per household. And it could go much higher. The tariffs have hurt him in the polls and will likely hurt more when they really start to bite, but the reaction is nothing like we might have expected with such a huge tax increase.