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Originally Posted by golfnutt
Yes, everything you wrote is right. So what can any of do about besides write message about how messed up this and that given the astronomical amounts of money we spend on healthcare, should be fixable. But it is impossible to fix inside the current system. Perhaps it just needs to be completely broken. But what does that really mean? When is it truly broker vs. the reality of us paying higher premiums and getting mediocre care? Perhaps Bernie Sanders could have done this. Who knows.
I'm patient and hopeful but it is going to take time. It's going to require the republicans crash and burn directly or indirectly than more time on top of that. I said years ago in this thread that I thought even as flawed as it was the passage of the ACA was substantial because it would be pretty much impossible to unwind. Even if Ryan's wet dream of killing millions of Americans comes true it will absolutely destroy the republican position in congress.
The reality is even if Clinton or Sanders won there would not have been single payer under either of them. Healthcare has turned into one of the biggest political hot potatos in the history of the US. The surprise Trump victory, though, turned it into a grenade, pulled the pin and dropped it into congresses hand.
I don't really have any good ideas on how we expedite things myself. It's going to take time and it's likely worst case short term outcomes are the only way to exchange time for long term changes. The current issue is what does Ryan secretly change and can the house pass it? Ultimately they won't get any kind of actual bill turned into law but failure can improve the optics to help unseat republicans. The question is how many Americans will experience worse outcomes before 2018 elections? That will likely only be a small stepping stone but I think healthcare kills the GOP in congress in 2020. Hard to really see out beyond that. But I still believe there is no really backwards with all this so we will ultimately get there. It just might not be pretty.
There are some well versed activists here who can probably provide stronger guidance in terms of how we can best influence real change in congress in the next four plus years. That is going to be the key to how long it takes.
A final thought is the republicans are likely going to be scorched by being stuck with the potato. Healthcare was not and is not some huge idealogy conundrum for republicans. (Except for budget burners). It was simple a means to an end. So once it actually backfires on them it's not like there are going to be a lot of future republican congress people opposing a single payer healthcare, at least not in any way that can not be overcome.
If everything broke absolutely right you might see a serious single payer system on the table and with a chance of passing in 4-5 years. But that is pretty much the best case scenario. Which is pretty depressing.