'This is health care moonshot time': Pandemic pulls Biden, Dems further left

[JoeOtterbein]

Politico

Progressives are insisting the party embrace "Medicare for All" in grim times.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN

07/28/2020 07:30 PM EDT

The coronavirus pandemic and the economic devastation it’s unleashed are pushing Joe Biden and the Democratic Party further to the left on health care. But it may not be far enough for some progressives.

Biden keeps inching closer to the Bernie Sanders wing of the party without embracing “Medicare for All,” by proposing to lower the eligibility age of the entitlement program from 65 to 60 and potentially extend government coverage to an additional 23 million people. He’s also backing a robust government-run public health insurance option that would auto-enroll low-income people who lose their jobs and provide another choice for Americans covered under Obamacare or at their job.

Those steps to strengthen the social safety net could tamp down the kind of infighting that roiled Democrats in the leadup to 2008 and 2016 elections. But they come as emboldened progressives insist the party embrace “Medicare for All” in its 2020 platform, saying the pandemic and tens of millions of newly unemployed Americans make a strong case for eliminating private health insurance entirely and replacing it with a single-payer system.

“The pandemic has been an ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment when it comes to insurance companies,” said Josh Orton, a Sanders delegate and member of the platform drafting committee who voted to approve the platform earlier this month. “When everyone is getting thrown off of work, it becomes obvious why having your insurance connected to your employer is bonkers."

snip

more great reporting on the most important issues of our time at link

[TexasTowelie]

1. I've failed to see any great reporting on Politico which is why I don't bother clicking

on their links anymore.

[JoeOtterbein]

2. Check out the article.

You might be pleasantly surprised.

[TexasTowelie]

5. No thanks.

I'm not giving any clicks to Politico.

[JoeOtterbein]

8. Google lets you go...

...incognito.

[TexasTowelie]

11. I really don't care.

I have not seen any "great" reporting on Politico in years so I don't see the point in bothering. Rehashing the same story with an additional statement or opinion does not constitute great reporting.

I have a database of nearly 750 media sites and nearly everyone of them provides more impressive reporting than Politico. A substantial number of them provide stories that are not on news amalgamation sites or available through the wire services such as AP, Reuters, or UPI. For example, last Wednesday I posted a thread from the Dallas Morning News on the bars in Texas violating the governor's shut down orders--the same story from a different source was reported as LBN on Saturday. I don't consider a three day old story to be LBN.

The facts are that the Democratic platform has been set and there isn't anybody at Politico that is going to influence any further changes.

[JoeOtterbein]

13. I do not see anything about LBN in the article or my comment.

Can you refer specifically to the LBN you are referring to, for me so I can understand your point please?

[TexasTowelie]

16. I didn't say that there was anything about LBN in either the article or your comment.

I consider great reporting to be news articles that are well written pieces within a short period of time (who, what, where, when, why, and how for LBN) after the event has occurred or that provides additional insights that weren't discussed when the story was breaking news.

In the case of the OP that you posted, neither of those criteria are being met. The author of the piece is only providing her opinion on something that has been discussed to death. That's not great reporting--the excerpt that you posted shows that at best it is an editorial. I don't claim to be a great reporter because I copy and paste articles on DU or because I was a layout editor and caption writer on my college newspaper. There is a significant difference between "great" and being prolific.

[JoeOtterbein]

19. Sorry, I did not meet your expectations for the post being "great"...

...enough for you.

I have to admit I wish I had the luxury of small concerns, such as even my own posts.

[TexasTowelie]

25. I'm not criticizing you and I realize that you are merely another poster on this site.

If I have a beef, it is the characteristics of what constitutes "great reporting."

I distinguish between reporting and editorializing because of my prior experience working in journalism--even if it was only at the college level. Great reporting usually requires objectivity by the writer with an absence or minimal amount of bias or advocacy.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much happening on a small university campus so there were only two or three "great" reports each year (e.g., when Phil Gramm ran for senator and he came for a speaking engagement on campus) and that was at a liberal arts university that included a lot of very talented writers. Gramm came to campus in 1986 when Sen. John Tower left the Senate and he thought it would be a picnic since Tower was a Southwestern Univ. alum. The students gave Phil Gramm a very lukewarm reception where he was peppered with difficult questions and he never visited again.

[Budi]

3. Haaaahaaaa...politico is the new Florida Man

Joe Biden has laid out his Health Plan & M4A ain't in the club.
And America can't wait 10 years & trillions of dollars for a pie in the sky campaign meme.

Biden's Health Care Plan..in detail.

Build on the Affordable Care Act.

https://joebiden.com/healthcare/

On Jan 20, 2021 President Biden will make it clear who is President & who is not.

Until then he'll keep reminding us who our 2020 Democratic Candidate is & who is not.
Eloquently, respectably & completely

Thank you Joe Biden

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
#Biden2020

[JoeOtterbein]

6. I did not read that in the article. nt

[msongs]

4. the sky is falling, democrats in disarray oh no nt

[JoeOtterbein]

7. I did not read that in the article. nt

[betsuni]

9. Could someone explain to me how lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 and adding a

public option to the ACA is getting "closer to the Bernie Sanders wing of the party" when Hillary ran on Medicare at 55 and a public option ACA in 2016? I don't get it.

[JoeOtterbein]

10. Good point...

...we need to do better. Like MFA.

[TexasTowelie]

12. MFA is DOA.

As one of the other posters here erroneously claim, 75% of Democrats support MFA. However, within the same article, only 40% actually support MFA while 55% supported enhancements to the ACA to provide insurance coverage to more people. That means that support for MFA is a minority position among Democrats and by the time independents, third parties, and Republicans are included the actual support level for MFA is somewhere around 20%-25% of the general population. Legislation doesn't get enacted with such a weak base of support.

[JoeOtterbein]

14. I do not see a post claiming 75% here in this post.

Please refer to the thread you are discussing.

[TexasTowelie]

20. You are correct, I said "here" which I can understand as meaning as "within this thread"

when I intended to mention a different thread. I apologize for my error that created the lack of clarity.

The 75% claim is mentioned begins here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142546824#post87

Note that post #144 shows that more people prefer fixing ACA over M4A.

[JoeOtterbein]

22. Thanks for correcting the part about...

...75% with the above graph.

[ismnotwasm]

15. Goddamnit

I just spent all day with a covid patient. Came home, showered, and isolate for a bit.

Then I read this.

I am not happy.

Yes, we need universal healthcare, we also need enough nurses, enough equipment, enough PCPs, enough specialists in enough fields (watched an infectious disease doc finally be able to have two weeks off, and that was a sight)enough hospitals staffed appropriately, enough providers, enough clinics—also staffed appropriately—enough fucking medication development in the right areas and pricing that makes sense. We need payment plans and reimbursement plans that take into account the sheer population of the people who need healthcare.

What covid has unleashed, is the realization the infrastructure of healthcare is NOT FUCKING ENOUGH. It’s broken. Slapping M4A on a bill filled with words and a touch of math and calling it good is not going fix it. I’m so tired. Just...so tired.

Playtime is over. Cosplay socialism is a failure. The conversation needs to be thoroughly combed over, detail oriented, and real and constant

It’s not about “pulling” anybody left. That just a disgusting thing to infer, that Democrats do not want healthcare for their constituents. Jesus. who even thinks like that?

[JoeOtterbein]

17. Sorry...

...about your patient. And thanks for supporting UHC. We all need it now. Even if it is called MFA

[TexasTowelie]

23. Thank you for the difficult work.

The people who work directly with the infected and who risk their own health deserve our utmost respect.

[JI7]

18. These people aren't concerned with getting actual policy changes in place. In fact they don't seem

understand the issue itself beyond it has to be called Medicare for ALL .

It's more about their egos and wanting to try to stay relevant .

[JoeOtterbein]

21. Who are the "these" people you are referring to?

Progressives? Democrats? Or just those you disagree with?

[JI7]

24. People who haven't gotten anything accomplished in decades