General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Obamacare not enough, so some in labor want single-payer system [View all]SunSeeker
(52,036 posts)She explains why she didn't consider single payer. She, very correctly, knew even the incremental changes of the ACA-like Hillarycare would meet tremendous opposition. She notes that Americans don't think of Medicare as single payer. She is correct. I remember those teabaggers in 2010 walking around with "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" signs.
Hillary is not against single payer on principle. She even defends single payer in the quote you cite, noting the stories pushed about the problems with other countries' single payer systems are often not true.
She just opposes the political strategy of attempting to go straight to single payer rather that doing it in steps.
I think the next step to single payer should be to dramatically expand Medicare. It is much more politically palatable and physically doable--the structure is already there. The quote you cite is actually encouraging to me since it sounds like she would agree with that strategy.