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Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: The Gauzy Myth of the Sanders Campaign [View all]Gothmog
(168,628 posts)31. sanders totally failed in getting his plan adopted in Vermont
A deep-blue states 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
Link to tweet
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 plans collapse, a clear public mandate for Mr. Shumlins 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. Shumlins 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 couldnt 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. Sanderss 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.
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. Shumlins 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 couldnt 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. Sanderss 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.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
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Exactly. They want to call it communism, but is it that much different than The New Deal?
rickyhall
Mar 2020
#13
Yup. How could we take him seriously as a candidate? How naive, if not outright foolish
KPN
Mar 2020
#16
Democrats seem to be more objective and vote for proven performance, Joe had that imperfectly in
uponit7771
Mar 2020
#23
Sanders' agenda: Its cost -- possibly $60 trillion -- would set a peacetime US record - CNNPolitics
Gothmog
Mar 2020
#22
LOL-the real world is a nice place and sanders cannot pay for his program in the real world
Gothmog
Mar 2020
#30
Cool, ok, so the talking-past-repliers behavior is not an exception but is your rule
ramen
Mar 2020
#36
sanders ad was rated false and is bogus given sanders proposed Social Security cuts
Gothmog
Mar 2020
#40