If he DOES get the nomination, the Democrats are through for the next ten years*. The Republicans will have a field day tearing this one apart! I'm an old school, left-centrist who believes in affordable - NOT FREE healthcare. I also believe in affordable NOT FREE college tuition. Why? Because people have to have "skin in the game," that's why. If you give healthcare and education out to people who neglect or don't care about it, they'll abuse it and they will take advantage of it because it's FREE and that will absolutely put even MORE OF A BURDEN on those systems as they quickly become unsustainable... And if you don't think people will take advantage of it and abuse it... just look at who's occupying the White House!
*yes, I said ten.
All this hand wringing over "free college" and how it is this supposed unobtainable pipe dream when for decades up until about 1970 we had just that.
The fucking irony is that all these now rightwinger baby boomers who are so against the idea were in the mid to late 60's going to USC,, UCLA, Berkley, UW Madison, UM in Ann Arbor and it was free or nearly free
As far as "free healthcare" goes NO ONE with half a brain thinks it will be truly "free" as in no money would be involved. What most us who are rational on the issue understand it that it simply means that we, we as a county would just simply take all this money that is being spent in a very inefficient scatter shot manner and spend it one way on one thing, employing economy of scale and applying it to a model that already "works" and has worked for decades now.
Look at what just the Federal Government alone spends to deliver healthcare at least a dozen different ways to people other than those on Medicare.
Medicaid, "expnaded" and "standard.classic" SCHIP, the medical components of SSI disability and workmans comp, Tricare, FEHB and the VA plus little niche programs for "black lung, 911 first res ponders and through the Bureau of Indian affairs and other similar small bore programs run by HHS
Add it all up and you are already talking about in excess of a trillion dollars a year
There is at least another trillion out there already being spent by others who who be more than happy to just send that money, an equal amount and who knows in the long run ,maybe, just maybe LESS to the Federal government if it meant NEVER having to deal with "healthcare/heath insurance" ever again.
Do you think that state and local governments really want that burden ??
Do you think that employers who are already sending money for each and every employee they have to the federal government really want the additional hassle of dealing with the Aetna's and Blue Cross, Blue Sheild's of the world ?
Do you think employees really want to be "stuck in a job" a job they might very hate because they do not want to risk "loosing their insurance" ?
Do you really think that hospitals would not jump at the chance to make "uncompensated care" a thing of the past?