Obamacare Plus

Missing in the polling regarding support for Obamacare is the distinction between people who oppose it because they think it goes too far, and those opposed because it didn’t go nearly far enough.

Obamacare is based on a Republican plan that Republicans are now turning their backs on because it got passed by Democrats. Huge concessions were made to conservatives in its drafting, but yielded not one Republican vote for it.

Progressives and many others want real reform, with a comprehensive benefit package and graduated tax financing to replace all out of pocket spending and eliminate the ever-inflating for-profit private insurer premiums.

A single-payer expanded and enriched Medicare for all would save more than enough money in administrative costs and negotiated pricing — not price-fixing but good, old-fashioned competition) — to pay for subsiding lower income groups, eliminating co-pays, and improving health quality without raising the cost for all but the wealthiest.

Many businesses, although perhaps not telegraphing support, would also like a single-payer system, relieving them of the headache of health benefit management and making it easier to use part-time workers.

I disagree with those conservatives and Tea Party activists whose opposition is based on the “yoyo” principal — you’re on your own — and single-minded hatred of everything Obama does.

Obamacare is flawed but should not be repealed. If it is too expensive, that is because it tinkers around the edges of the real problem: our for-profit health non-system.

Keep Obamacare. Vote out obstructionists. Pass single-payer.