Shawn Vestal: Health care — and health care rhetoric — will be at the center of congressional race
"Happy primary night," began the message from the
Brown, the news release proceeds to claim, has been ambiguous about whether she supports single-payer health care. She's said a few things that suggest she might support such a plan, the
She must come clean, the
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent its own post-election statement, naturally, in which it went after Rep.
It's clear we'll be hearing a lot about health care in the weeks to come. It's also clear that the talk about health care -- the framing, the spinning, the insinuating -- will probably be more important than policy.
This week's primary confirmed that the
But
Few issues in health care have the level of widespread support as that: People in poll after poll express support for the idea that insurance companies should not be able to deny people coverage for being sick.
Meanwhile, the
Has Brown left that door open? She says she wants to see increased access to health care, including possible expansions of Medicare, and efforts to bring down costs. She says she isn't committed to any single proposal such as a Medicare-for-all, but wants to look at each one on its merits -- and costs -- when the time comes.
Is that an open door? You decide.
Either way, that old albatross simply isn't what it once was. Not even close.
There was a time when few Americans supported the idea of government health insurance in any form. A
Things have changed dramatically. In the past couple of years, polling shows steady and increasing support for some form of national health plan or single-payer system -- and big support for a more robust public option.
Sixty-two percent of Americans support Medicare-for-all, according to polling in May by the
Pew polling last year showed that 60 percent of Americans now say it is the government's responsibility to see that all people have health insurance; that was up from 51 percent the previous year.
Those results are shocking, because the question used "government responsibility" language -- the kind of language for which most conservatives require a trigger warning. And while
Fifty-two percent of
Just how those national figures will play out here in the
But as we head toward the general election, and as the rhetoric about health care picks up the friction of constant spin, it's clear that the ground is shifting.
Whatever you want to call it -- single-payer, government health care, national health plan -- this is simply not the albatross it used to be.
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