In response to the GOP’s latest attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a small group of Democrats are fighting back but rather than try to improve the ACA, they are pushing for a more radical single-payer system, reports Hannah Brooks Olsen.
“Last week, the idea got its most high-profile boost yet, when Sanders unveiled a Medicare-for-All bill with a record 15 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate,” says Brooks Olsen.
Despite a recent Pew poll, which found that support for single-payer health care has increased by 12 points, the bill, which has no chance of passing in the current GOP-controlled House and Senate, “could potentially leave many pregnant people without a way to pay for a necessary medical procedure that hundreds of thousands seek each year,” Brooks Olsen warns.
“Because no plan can be universal if it doesn’t support those seeking reproductive care,” insists Brooks Olsen.
To this end, rescinding the Hyde Amendment must be part of any push for single-payer, as well as including mechanisms to minimize a state’s ability to complicate abortion access. But most importantly, the Democratic Party must hold true to its platform and its base, not try to curry favor by characterizing abortion services as “an optional or superfluous part of the left’s agenda,” as it has done in recent months.
Read more at The Establishment
