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I've remarked before on a fascinating phenomenon that's emerged over the past decade or so: an odd alignment of the left and right on health care. Indeed, if you find yourself discussing health care with someone, you often can't tell from the conversation if that someone self-identifies as being on the far left or the far right. The rhetoric of those two groups has converged, their critiques of market-based systems mirror each other, and their immediate (if not end) goal is seemingly shared.
That's why what once would have seemed ironic now makes a strange sort of sense: the right has done (and is doing) more to advance the Medicare-for-all agenda than the left ever did. If they succeed in their efforts, I daresay some form of single-payer being implemented in the next decade almost certainly becomes inevitable.
‘Medicare for all’ advocates emboldened by ObamaCare lawsuit
That's why what once would have seemed ironic now makes a strange sort of sense: the right has done (and is doing) more to advance the Medicare-for-all agenda than the left ever did. If they succeed in their efforts, I daresay some form of single-payer being implemented in the next decade almost certainly becomes inevitable.
‘Medicare for all’ advocates emboldened by ObamaCare lawsuit
Progressive groups and lawmakers plan to use a Texas judge's ruling against ObamaCare to jump-start their push for “Medicare for all” in the next Congress.
Supporters of a single-payer health system are arguing that now is the time to start moving in a new direction from the Affordable Care Act, in part because they feel the 2010 health law will never be safe from Republican attempts to destroy or sabotage it.
“In light of the Republican Party’s assault, a version of Medicare for all is necessary for the future," said Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy at the Center for American Progress. "There are just too many points of vulnerability in the current system.”
The court decision in Texas that invalidates ObamaCare in its entirety came on the heels of sweeping Democratic victories in the midterm elections, a combination that has energized advocates of Medicare for all.
The court case, brought by 20 GOP-led states, was at the center of this year's midterm campaign after Democrats attacked Republicans for supporting the lawsuit and seeking to overturn ObamaCare's protections for pre-existing conditions.
The Trump administration, in a rare move, declined to defend the law in court, arguing instead that the pre-existing condition protections should be overturned.