Hacker News Reader

Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

I say this as someone who has maxed out his FEC contributions to Senator Sanders, and have also contributed heavily to a PAC that supports Medicare For All:

Based on primary returns, the electorate is still selfish and not willing to support a candidate who supports Medicare For All. The situation must deteriorate much further before the path to universal healthcare becomes unavoidable.

Based on exit polls, it’s clear the 65+ cohort is who is holding this up (although the 30-44 age cohort is culpable to a lesser extent, at least in the Dem primary).

Disclaimer: I received a few more years with my Mom than I otherwise would have because of the ACA. Universal healthcare is my hill to die on, most especially for my kids.

View on HN

One way this coronavirus situation forces people to consider universal coverage is that the less fortunate, without health care and means for testing, become an attack vector for the virus towards the more fortunate. This makes universal coverage in the self-interest of the more fortunate, and hopefully they realize cost-efficient.

You give the electorate too much credit. While logical, most people aren’t. They vote their feelings, not facts.

I’ve spoken to several at risk people who have written COVID19 off as a political conspiracy and not a real threat.

I'm optimistic, but can see the case for pessimism as well.

All hope is not lost, but there is much work left to be done.

The trick is to never give up. More likely your opponent does first. The Grand Canyon is a marvel, but the water was what cut through it. Be the water.

Sanderite Medicare for All is a subset of Universal Healthcare. Please stop pretending they see the same thing.

It’s estimated to save 68k lives and $450 billions dollars per year [1]. If you have a better proposal, champion it.

[1] https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/medicare-for-...

No, push for the most aggressive plan possible. This is the one moment in history you might just get what you want. If you start in the middle they'll argue you down to nothing. Hold firm and tell. Don't ask.

I'd honestly be surprised if universal healthcare will ever be on the table. Between Trump and Biden, there won't be any discussions.

What could happen is that Biden gets KO'ed by the disease, leaving Sanders the default democratic candidate.

The Sanderite strategy was to insist that there is only one way to do things, which was his way, and everybody else must simply fall in line. It didn't work last time, it didn't work this time.

It works if something happens to enough of the electorate opposing it (about 5k people over 55 die each day, the older you are the more moderate or conservative you skew [vs progressive] per Pew Research). This ignores death spikes from black swan events (COVID-19); they bring about change more rapidly. “Progress occurs one funeral at a time”, apologies to Max Planck.

Just as interracial marriage, womens’ voting rights, the legalization of abortion, same sex marriage, and the slow sweep of marijuana legalization and prison reform come eventually, this too will arrive. We’re just arguing the timeline, which is frankly insane we’re willing to wait so long to save the lives of so many of our fellow citizens.

For the non-Americans, what is the difference?

I am a Canadian and we have the exact system Sanders wants in this US. With very few explicit exceptions, private medical insurance is illegal and the government is the only insurer. It is also not possible to pay for or provide supplementary services, ie, if you have to wait 2 months for something, there are no private clinics that can do it in 2 weeks.

Universal Healthcare means everybody is covered and there's many different way to provide such coverage. Canada's is not even a very common approach.

There are numerous private clinics that can get things done fast, and Canadians often use them. Things would be different if the border were closed or if Canadians lived far from it.

Without that easy-to-cross border, the political pressure to allow private clinics would be irresistible. The law would change.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com