General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "But we couldn't *possibly* have gotten single payer!" [View all]Rilgin
(787 posts)VanillaRhapsody, you are totally making up history. Our health care industry problems were a major public and policy wonk issue and the competing plans of Hillary and Obama were a big part of their respective campaigns. Their plans were similar but had some differences, mostly in the imposition of a Mandate and support for a Public Option.
Hillary's publicly released health care insurance reform plan had insurance reform such as as eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions but coupled that with a health insurance mandate and no public option. It was on her web site and in her materials and when reporters asked her plan, that was it.
Obama's publicly released health care insurance reform plan, had similar insurance reforms (elimination of pre-existing conditions) but explicitly had NO health insurance mandate and HAD a public option.
Not only were these plans broadly and publicly part of their campaigns, it was explicitly debated in the Campaign debates. Obama ran on No Mandate and a Public Option as a way to distinguish his plan from Hilary's.
We lost that campaign plan almost immediately when Obama got into office when it basically morphed into Hilary's plan -- imposition of a Mandate and No Public Option.
Some people here have the Opinion (asserted as fact) that nothing else was possible. It is always possible that Obama could not get more than the ACA which institutionalized the Insurance Companies in the provision of health care in this Country. However, his approach was the failed carrot of false bi-partisanship which did not work and left us with Democrats forcing a modified republican plan on the United States. At the time, he could have mobilized Millions of People to public rallies if he had chosen the alternate strategy of a direct political battle. It is only opinion that such a battle for a better health care system would not have worked.