吃瓜不打烊

Skip to main content

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.

Subscribe Follow Us
  • Trump 2.0

    Trump 2.0

    • Agency Watch
    • State Watch
    • Rural Health Payout
  • Public Health

    Public Health

    • Vaccines
    • CDC & Disease
    • Environmental Health
    All Public Health
  • Audio Reports

    Audio Reports

    • What the Health?
    • Healthcare Helpline
    • 吃瓜不打烊 Minute
    • An Arm and a Leg
    • Health Hub
    • HealthQ
    • Silence in Sikeston
    • Epidemic
    All Audio
  • Special Reports

    Special Reports

    • Bill Of The Month
    • Common Ground
    • Diagnosis: Debt
    • The Body Shops
    • Priced Out
    • Guns, Race, and Profit
    • Broken Rehab
    • Dead Zone
    • Denied
    • Opioid Settlement Tracking
    • Eleven Minutes
    All Special Reports
  • More Topics

    More Topics

    • Elections
    • Healthcare Costs
    • Insurance
    • Prescription Drugs
    • Health Industry
    • Immigration
    • Reproductive Health
    • Technology
    • Rural Health
    • Race and Health
    • Aging
    • Mental Health
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Medicare
    • Medicaid
    • Children’s Health
    All Topics

  • Medicare Advantage Billing Probe
  • School Vaccine Mandates
  • Weight Loss Drugs Coverage
  • Opioid Settlement Money
  • Abortion Pill Access

Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

  • Email

Thursday, Sep 14 2017

Full Issue

Single-Payer Perspectives: An Opening Bid Or A Way To Change The Subject

Editorial writers offer their thoughts on the single-payer approach to health care that appears to be gaining traction in the ongoing policy debate.

Bernie Sanders is releasing his latest single payer health care plan today, and while there are some small differences between this one and what he has proposed in the past, the biggest difference is that this time, he鈥檚 got lots of company. Fifteen Democratic senators are co-sponsoring his bill, including most of those considering running for president in 2020. Support for some kind of universal coverage is now the consensus position among Democrats. And Sanders鈥 single payer plan is the one that has gotten the most attention, so it鈥檚 going to be the one against which other plans are measured. (Paul Waldman, 9/13)

In his big new single-payer health care bill, Senator Bernie Sanders says he wants to turn the country鈥檚 health system into 鈥淢edicare for all.鈥 But his bill actually outlines a system very different from the current Medicare program. The Sanders plan envisions changing Medicare in two important ways. First, it would make it more generous than it has ever been, expanding it to cover new types of benefits and to erase most direct health care costs for consumers. Those changes would tend to make it more expensive. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 9/13)

Since the collapse of the GOP effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, single payer has gained new life on the left. Sen. Bernie Sanders released his 鈥淢edicare for all" plan yesterday, and a majority of House Democrats have signed on to another version proposed by Rep. John Conyers. (Drew Altman, 9/14)

Apparently, the thinking in Democratic Party circles goes something like this: Since Obamacare has been such a smashing success, let鈥檚 inject even more government into health care. ... Several leading contenders for the party鈥檚 presidential nomination have come out in favor of single-payer health care, and some Democratic skeptics are now coming around. (9/13)

Senate Democrats, including nearly all of the party's potential 2020 presidential candidates, haven't so much been jumping on Bernie Sanders' single payer, "Medicare for all" health care bandwagon as they have been elbowing past each other to snatch a prominent political seat on it. But the increasingly popular idea, unveiled by Sanders and at least 16 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate Wednesday, is already brushing up against scrutiny from the medical industry and some health care analysts who question how the proposal would be paid for and implemented in practicality. (Sy Mukherjee, 9/13)

Hillary Clinton鈥檚 memoir of her presidential campaign is getting most of the media attention this week, but that鈥檚 the politics of progressive nostalgia. If you want to know where the Democratic Party is going, Bernie Sanders showed the way Wednesday with his proposal for a complete government takeover of health care. (9/13)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
Newsletter icon

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:

Recent Morning Briefings

  • Today, August 4
  • Monday, August 3
  • Friday, July 31
  • Thursday, July 30
  • Wednesday, July 29
  • Tuesday, July 28
More Morning Briefings
RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
  • Special Reports
  • Morning Briefing
  • 吃瓜不打烊
  • Republish Our Content
  • Contact Us

Follow Us

  • RSS

Sign up for emails

Join our email list for regular updates based on your personal preferences.

Sign up
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy

漏 2026 KFF