Single-payer is coming

Peter Freyne writes about Dr. Deb Richter and the Vermont single-payer bill at Freyneland:

We are going to experience healthcare services like the rest of the civilized world. Like France and England. Like Sweden and Canada. Like Germany and Spain and Finland and the rest.

When you or your loved one gets sick or injured and needs expensive treatment and hospitalization and rehab, all you're going to have to worry about is getting well - not going broke. You will not have to worry about being unable to get the procedure you need because you cannot afford it. Or because you cannot afford the $10,000 deductible on the insurance "coverage" you do have.

We're going to see that day, right here in Vermont and right here in the United States of America.

It's only a question of when.

A lot of politics — and life, for that matter — has to do with timing. A lot of politicians right now, in Colorado, in Vermont, and in D.C., are poised on the brink of support for single-payer. Is this the time? Are Americans sufficiently educated to be immune to the propaganda that's now being readied to try to scare them into clinging to the current system? How deep is the support for change? How many families have to be hurt, before that support is broad and deep enough to make it happen?