Fact or fiction? Single payer is the real goal

Claim: Progressives support a public plan, but their goal is a single-payer government health care system.  

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Congress has been debating whether to set up a government-run insurance program which would resemble the Medicare plan for Americans age 65 and over. Republicans contend that what Democrats really want is a system in which all Americans’ medical costs are paid by the federal government. Is the public option a means to an end, or an end in itself?

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

Fact or fiction?
A bit of both. Some public plan advocates such as Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D- W.V., dismiss charges that a public plan is a "Trojan horse" for a single-payer system. Other progressives have said they prefer a single-payer system. "People want a public option," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. said last month. But he added, "Long-term, the only real solution in terms of providing comprehensive universal cost-effective health care is a single-payer system." He would give states the option to adopt a single-payer plan which, he said, would curb excess administrative costs. Yale professor Jacob Hacker, whose insurance reform ideas serve as the partial basis for Democrats' proposals, said last year "we’re going to get there (to a single-payer system), over time, slowly. We will move away from reliance on employment-based health insurance, as we should."

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