Medicare-For-Hmmm: A Year Of House Hearings Show Democratic Disunity

Four House hearings show how far away even many Democrats are from supporting a single payer system in the US.

Crime scene chalk tracing of a donkey with blood stain on a tarmac pavement, for the political concept: The Democrat Donkey is dead.
Democratic infighting about the nature of health care reform has brought into question what the party could accomplish even if it captured the presidency and gained control of Congress. • Source: Shutterstock

The 30 April Rules Committee hearing in the US House had the makings of a milestone political event: “H.R. 1384—Medicare for All Act of 2019.” The fact that the “Speaker’s Committee” – the House committee that controls the rules for how a bill is introduced and debated – was a symbolic move signaling that single payer health care was on the worthy of formal debate.

Progressive Washington Democrat Pramila Jayapal is the lead sponsor of HR 1384, which has at least 120 co-sponsors in the...

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