Sen. Bernie Sanders has announced to constituents at a town hall meeting this past Saturday that he’ll introduce a single-payer health care bill in Congress “within a couple of weeks.”
Let’s all get excited!! Let’s ready ourselves for the coming fight for a single-payer or Medicare for All healthcare system.
Now for reality. Does anyone seriously believe that those who run this country, the decision makers, are going to support an idea that puts the private health insurance industry out of business?
Does anyone seriously believe that under a capitalist system, those who decide will be more concerned with your health than with the health of the private insurers?
No meaningful change in our lives, whether its healthcare, affordable housing, unemployment and underemployment, public education, continuous wars, etc. will be allowed to occur under a capitalist system in which privatization and profits are the holy grail.
Am I angry? You bet your noogies I am. They’re all full of poop and I don’t want to involve myself in another struggle that will prove to be a distraction from the need to destroy capitalism . . . a system that is and will continue to be anti-worker, a system that is quickly destroying life on earth by poisoning our air and our waters.
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.
An attempt to pass a single payer bill in the face of certain defeat is similar to Sen. Sanders’ campaign last year. Many were fairly sure that he would never be nominated but he successfully aired progressive issues all around the nation that hadn’t been heard for decades and, for all to see, forced the DNC mob to reveal its total corruption and duplicity. That was a useful service and certainly did no harm. More than half the American people favor single payer and it does no harm for us to see, once again, the corporate greed-bags turn us down. Perhaps, sooner or later, we may become angry enough to organize something serious.
We must try and keep trying. We can’t afford not to and your whiny ads commentary is defeatist rhetoric. When I worked for this forum, back in its earliest days, we were the fierce warriors of the internet.