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Gothmog

(168,628 posts)
31. sanders totally failed in getting his plan adopted in Vermont
Sat Mar 14, 2020, 01:29 PM
Mar 2020

A deep-blue state’s failure to enact a single-payer system shows why a national version is unlikely to succeed. www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/opinion/bernie-sanders-single-payer.html




The first problem for any single-payer push would be political support: Mr. Shumlin campaigned on a promise to build a single-payer system in Vermont, but the public never quite bought in. An April 2014 survey showed 40 percent support, 39 percent opposition and 21 percent undecided — a lukewarm result for such a major undertaking. That year, Mr. Shumlin barely won the popular vote against an anti-single-payer Republican. As John E. McDonough of Harvard wrote in a perceptive New England Journal of Medicine analysis of the plan’s collapse, “a clear public mandate” for Mr. Shumlin’s health care agenda “was nowhere in evidence.”

One reason the plan lacked strong support was lawmakers were cagey about how to pay for it. The 2011 proposal included no specific financing mechanism, because Mr. Shumlin’s team worried that might kill its chances.

Initial cost estimates were far too optimistic. A 2011 study led by William Hsiao of Harvard found that single-payer could reduce state health care spending by 8 percent to 12 percent immediately and more in later years, resulting in about $2 billion in savings over a decade. But by the time Mr. Shumlin ditched the plan, internal government estimates showed a five-year savings of just 1.6 percent.....

The Vermont plan was done in by high taxes, distrust of government and lack of political support. Any effort by a Sanders administration to enact a single-payer system at a national level would probably be doomed by similar problems.....

But if it couldn’t work in Vermont, with a determined governor, an accommodating legislature and progressive voters, Mr. Sanders will have a tough time explaining why it will somehow succeed on a vastly larger scale. Vermont represents a practical failure on friendly turf, and that is what makes it such a powerful counter to Mr. Sanders’s proposal.

“If Vermont can pass a strong single-payer system and show it works well, it will not only be enormously important to this state, it will be a model,” Mr. Sanders said in 2013.

As it turns out, it was a model. But instead of showing us how it would work, it showed us why it would fail.

The real world is a nice place. sanders plan was a complete failure in Vermont which is why this plan will not work nationwide.
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

A big, fat K&R! CaliforniaPeggy Mar 2020 #1
Time for senator sanders to go home Thekaspervote Mar 2020 #2
past time...for Sanders to concede. Demsrule86 Mar 2020 #3
I teach these college kids. I love these kids, but... B Stieg Mar 2020 #4
I know one person is a small sample. Mr.Bill Mar 2020 #6
If she Rebl2 Mar 2020 #10
Even in a primary? What State? Context would KPN Mar 2020 #12
In California. Never voted in any election. Still. Mr.Bill Mar 2020 #15
Are they even registered? House of Roberts Mar 2020 #7
Hillary gave BS Concessions in the General Election Cha Mar 2020 #5
It's all right. His progressive message was received & noted. rickyhall Mar 2020 #8
Such a terrible person to believe mountain grammy Mar 2020 #11
Exactly. They want to call it communism, but is it that much different than The New Deal? rickyhall Mar 2020 #13
Exactly. mountain grammy Mar 2020 #20
Yup. How could we take him seriously as a candidate? How naive, if not outright foolish KPN Mar 2020 #16
I understand why people are unhappy Skittles Mar 2020 #9
Or Biden. I still like Senator Warren. rickyhall Mar 2020 #14
yup Skittles Mar 2020 #21
Democrats seem to be more objective and vote for proven performance, Joe had that imperfectly in uponit7771 Mar 2020 #23
This message was self-deleted by its author KPN Mar 2020 #18
I know you don't like the guy, and you're far from alone, ramen Mar 2020 #17
Thank you for your honesty. KPN Mar 2020 #19
Sanders' agenda: Its cost -- possibly $60 trillion -- would set a peacetime US record - CNNPolitics Gothmog Mar 2020 #22
Switzerland rejects single-payer in landslide, keeps its version of Obamacare Gothmog Mar 2020 #24
Are we really doing this? ramen Mar 2020 #25
LOL-the real world is a nice place and sanders cannot pay for his program in the real world Gothmog Mar 2020 #30
sanders totally failed in getting his plan adopted in Vermont Gothmog Mar 2020 #31
I presume the countries I listed upthread in the message you ignored entirely ramen Mar 2020 #33
LOL at someone quoting wikipedia on this issue Gothmog Mar 2020 #34
Why has sanders refused or failed to tell us what his magical plan costs? Gothmog Mar 2020 #35
Cool, ok, so the talking-past-repliers behavior is not an exception but is your rule ramen Mar 2020 #36
The study cited is amusing but does not help your case Gothmog Mar 2020 #39
Have you seen BSs new campaign ad? Apparently its showing non-stop Squinch Mar 2020 #26
No.. goddamn it. Any link? ramen Mar 2020 #27
. Squinch Mar 2020 #28
Florida will be interesting Gothmog Mar 2020 #32
This is an unflattering use of Biden's words.. ramen Mar 2020 #37
sanders ad was rated false and is bogus given sanders proposed Social Security cuts Gothmog Mar 2020 #40
K&R betsuni Mar 2020 #29
Biden is leading sanders by a 2 to 1 margin Gothmog Mar 2020 #38
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