As the battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over health care has heated up, a number of liberal writers have published pieces taking a hard look at Sanders’ single payer plan. The latest one comes from Jonathan Cohn, who concludes that, even if single payer is a desirable goal, the monumental scale of change that it would require — essentially wiping away the existing insurance structure and replacing it with a government plan that would squeeze providers to lower medical costs — renders it impossible for the foreseeable future.
As Cohn notes, Democrats couldn’t even get the public option passed back when they held Congressional majorities, and getting single payer would be infinitely harder; this raises further questions about whether Sanders is seriously grappling with the policy constraints the next Democratic president would face.
But the single payer flap suggests a line of questioning on health care for Hillary Clinton, too.
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