The big problem with Medicare for all is how do we get from where we are to where we need to go without creating serious political and economic problems. The insurance part of the equation is a 24 billion dollar industry, the care part of the equation is a 90 billion dollar a year industry. That is a 114 billion dollar chunk of our economy.
As Medicare for all has been presented by some of the candidates in this campaign suggests an overnight conversion, at least that is the impression the folks building their platforms around the issue leave. Never a word of caution about what a difficult transition it will be.
Millions of voters in this country owe their jobs and livelyhood to the for profit medical care industry, in addition millions of folks are perfectly happy with their existing health care arrangements. Add that to the folks who buy into slogans about socialized medicine and you have a formidible stumbling block to success. When you fire up your base by promising Medicare for all right now you are also firing up the folks that will be hurt by it. Donald Trump probably owes his election to the mess that grew out of Obamacare (although kudo's to Obama for breaking the logjam to get us at least moving forward).
Overpromising a radical change now could be a gift to Donald Trump and would certainly be a gift to any Republican running in 2024. If you actually want to get it done in an efficient manner it has to be acknowledged as a long term goal of easing us from for-profit to Medicare for all. The idea of allowing existing for profits to continue, but opening up Medicare to all to compete with existing for profits makes a lot more sense to me. Better to underpromise and overdeliver.
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