Sanders’ Vaporware

David Posnett — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 00:49:18 +0000

Published as an LTE in the East Hampton Star.

Vaporware
Springs, February 24, 2020

Why doesn’t Bernie Sanders level with voters as to how he plans to pay for his flagship “Medicare for All” plan? The answer is simple: He can’t.

Take a look at Sanders’s official campaign website and take a look at his program for Medicare for All. If as Senator Warren says Pete Buttigieg’s plan is nothing more than a “Post-it,” the Sanders plan is more like a postage stamp. Nowhere does his campaign site include a plan for paying for his pie-in-the-sky program. After spending seven-plus years of foisting this plan on voters, one would think he would be able to explain it to us. He can’t, because it is unworkably expensive.

In short, it is nothing but political vaporware. What is vaporware? When the term was in vogue it described efforts by software companies to promise a non-existent product to deceptively discourage customers from buying an existing competitive product (or discourage competitors from developing one). So what Sanders is doing is deceptively attracting voters to a Medicare for All plan that promises everything but will deliver nothing.

And what’s even worse is that there is proof of his plan’s nonviability from an actual attempt to launch a similar plan. And guess where that plan was tried? Vermont (Bernie’s home state)! In 2011, then-Governor Pete Shumlin euphorically promised a single-payer plan, dubbed Green Mountain Care. Backed by advocates bordering on the “theological,” Green Mountain Care (encouraged by Senator Sanders) promised a system of health care for all that would save money, even though no one knew what it would cost when it passed in 2014.

That belief proved hopelessly naïve. As the Green Mountain plan moved into implementation, it became clear that the plan would double Vermont’s budget, would require raising state income taxes by up to 9.5 percent, and imposing an 11.5-percent payroll tax on employers.

The Green Mountain Plan crashed in flames in 2014, after the governor realized that the only economically viable plan would offer Vermonters less protection than they already had.

So there is every reason for Senator Sanders to avoid discussing how his Medicare for All plan would be financed (other than in the broadest of generalities, like “taxes would go up.” (Yes, but how much?) There is an equally obvious reason why he fails to even mention the failed Vermont plan, and a mysterious absence of any explanation of how his plan would correct the deficiencies of the Vermont plan he touted at the time.

Given Senator Sanders’s evasions, it is incumbent upon voters (and his competitors) to put his feet to the fire and force him to explain in detail, with data, how his plan would be paid for and why it would behoove 150 million Americans to vote for a candidate who would deprive them of their existing health care for an unknown product. Until he comes clean, it’s vaporware, and voters should beware of being duped. Taking him on faith could not be more dangerous.

Sincerely, BRUCE COLBATH

Medicare-for-all-who-want-it

David Posnett — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:12:19 +0000

Adapted from John Hooker in response to Wendell Potter’s statement:

“There’s now a chorus of voices, led by Senators Sanders and Warren, that are saying, ‘enough’. An entire generation has grown up hearing the stale health insurance industry talking points (that I helped craft decades ago). And they aren’t fooled! Politicians who keep defending the insurance industry will go down with them when the health care system finally collapses.”

I will repeat myself until I’m unable to write any more. THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS. Wendell Potter is right factually but is playing the role of an activist (and selling books).

If you want to change something, choose Medicare for all who want it (MFAWWI) – also known as the public option. This will do the work without being bombarded with slogans like “socialism” etc. Remember, not so long ago, even some Democrats did not support Obamacare in 2010. They were too afraid of the public reaction when Republicans began bombarding the country with their fraudulent slogans.

We have reached, a “McCarthyism” situation in this country where the number of people becoming irrational is increasing. This is very dangerous. If we do not reform, we will screw up this country for good.

Introducing the government option or MFAWWI will do the dirty work of putting the insurance companies gradually out of work. It will bring the price of pharmaceuticals down because the increasing size of MFAWWI will put pressure on pharmaceutical pricing. It will force re-structuring through market forces and do this at a more manageable pace for society so that it can adapt to this huge change.

There is too much now to disentangle in one fell swoop — particularly while half of the opposing stakeholders will be bombarding a well-meaning single-payer system.

Time to be realistic. The only way to get the whole country to move in a direction of this magnitude (re-structuring one-sixth of the economy) is to have a huge majority convinced that that is what we have to do — like a war effort! We aren’t there yet.

Same for climate change!! Which is even bigger an issue.

M4A – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Sanders’ Vaporware

Medicare-for-all-who-want-it