Dear President Obama: America Needs Single Payer Health Care

Now that there are 60 Democratic Senators (well once Norm Coleman finally relents in his quest to be the biggest sore loser in history and Al Franken is seated) it seems ridiculous to say that single payer health care is not politically possible (which has been the excuse for why it won’t be done.)

Single payer health care (that is true not for profit universal health care) is important enough that President Obama should spend some of his so called “political capital” on it. Because not only is it the right thing for the health of Americans (and the economy) – It’s also the right thing for the Democrats politically. Sure they may take some short term hit on it, but in the long run it will be a big political plus for them.

Why? Because people (even most Republicans) are going to absolutely love universal health care once they actually experience it for themselves (polls around the world indicate how much people like it in practice.) And if the Democrats get the credit for this thing that everyone is going to love (and obviously they will) then they are likely to win even more elections in the future and expand their power in Washington even further.

Think about how much people like Medicare. It’s important to note that Republicans/insurance companies tried to scare everyone about Medicare in a very similar way to how they are trying to scare people about single payer universal health care now. But how many Republicans will go on record as being opposed to Medicare now?

The time for excuses is over. Whatever President Obama & the rest of the Democratic party has to do get real universal health care done, they need to do it. This is the time. The United States must catch up to the rest of the world in health care. It’s time for a health care system that works for the people, not for the insurance companies.