Redesign
Out of context: Reply #23
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- TheBlueOne0
"... it doesn't make sense that any health legislation should have over 1,000 pages. What's obviously going on is a set of complicated giveaways to corporations when what's needed is a simplification of medical services delivery. To accomplish what we want, whether it's single payer or a robust public option, the legislation really needs no more than two or three pages. Simple, unambiguous language that either directs the government to pay all medical bills or that allows individuals to buy into Medicare at a reasonable cost. And there's also a third way to approach the problem that makes sense, which would be to incrementally expand Medicare over the next several years, each year taking in new tranches of the public, starting with older and younger groups and working towards the middle.
It seems to me that the progressive caucus, if determined, could make a stand on the simplicity issue and then bargain over its contents. No bill will pass that is longer than five pages. Period.
At the same time it makes no sense whatsoever, if the Democrats choose to go it alone without Republican votes, to include in any health reform legislation the already agreed compromises with Republicans. That was yesterday; those were old rules.
Health care is a genuine political inflection point. The Democratic party needs to decide what it wants to do with itself, either to endorse meaningful reform or become irrelevant."