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Doomed: The Moderate Approach to National Healthcare
Recently retired candidate for president Pete Buttigieg ran on the message of “Medicare for All Who Want It.” Mike Bloomberg’s plan is similar. This seemingly sensible approach to our national healthcare crisis did not exactly catch fire for Mayor Pete, and his run for president has crashed and burned. Why?
One reason could be that many Americans remember what happened the last time someone promised them that if they liked their healthcare plan, they could keep it. On June 6, 2009, President Obama made this promise in his weekly address: “If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.”
This message was repeated again and again by President Obama and members of his administration in an effort to allay the fears people had about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Whether it was a well-meaning, overly optimistic misconception, or an out and out lie, it helped lay the groundwork for Trump’s path to the White House.
In the fall of 2013, letters went out to approximately 4 million Americans informing them that their coverage would be cancelled. They could not, in fact, keep their doctors and their healthcare plans. This gaff is a major ingredient in the stew of…
