Thursday, June 28, 2012

House Progressives ready to double-down on stupid and push for single-payer option if Obamacare struck down


When the majority of Americans reject your attempt to takeover their healthcare, what do you do? You propose an even bigger takeover of their healthcare if you are House progressives.
WASHINGTON — The last thing House progressives want is for the Supreme Court to strike down President Barack Obama’s health care law. But if the high court rules Thursday that some or all of the law is unconstitutional, progressives are ready to renew their push for the model of health care they wanted all along: the single-payer option.
“It’s easy to see it’s a good idea,” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told The Huffington Post. “It’s the cheapest way to cover everybody.”
Ellison said all 75 members of the caucus have already signed onto a bill by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to create a single-payer, publicly financed, privately delivered universal health care program. The proposal would essentially build on and expand Medicare, under which all Americans would be guaranteed access to health care regardless of an ability to pay or pre-existing health conditions.
House progressives pushed hard for a single-payer option, such as the “Medicare for all” approach, during the health care reform debate in 2009. But House Democratic leaders couldn’t come up with the votes to pass the proposal... Keep on reading...

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