[theluketaylor]

As a Canadian observer I don't understand why Democrats don't go after the small business angle of single payer much, much harder. Don't get me wrong; the lack of health care for poor and at risk populations in the US is a complete disaster, but that argument hasn't swayed the debate for decades now, so it's time for a new approach.

Health care being tied to employment is anti-startup and anti-small business, full stop. In countries with single payer (or similar) systems you can change jobs without any impact to your coverage, you can start a business knowing your family's health and financial future won't be affected.

[currymj]

Democrats do not all want single payer healthcare. Only the left wing of the party really wants it, although this is slowly changing.

Center and center-right Democrats are pretty happy with the ACA as it was intended, although often not as it actually turns out in many states. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them take big contributions from insurers and pharmaceutical companies.

I think if single payer becomes widely accepted within the party, you probably will see the "helping entrepreneurs" angle as a big part of the messaging -- individual candidates do bring it up.

[tptacek]

Ideologues on both sides have very specific ideas for how health care should be structured, but I think that most people on both sides can agree on basic principles: health insurance (if that's what we have) needs to be guaranteed-issue, premiums have to be reasonable, and pricing needs to be transparent. One thing the ACA got right is the name of the bill.

[sjg007]

I dunno, the poor get medicaid which is great insurance. The real problem is that they are too poor to utilize it. The other issue is that medicaid has a state component so you see drastic differences in implementation even though there are Federal minimums.