I am rooting for Obamacare to succeed. That does not mean we should abandon single payer.
I'm not a single payer nihilist, though there are plenty of people who believe the road to single payer runs through the failure of Obamacare--I'm not one of them.
I know better than most having attended numerous free health clinics around the country that countless millions of Americans will benefit to one extent or another from the Affordable Care Act.
Americans are already benefiting. There are required preventative services at no cost sharing. Young people can stay on their parent health plans until age 26.
And yes, the dreaded pre-existing condition barbarism, will vanish from the face of the earth on January 1, 2014.
And many sick Americans will get help thanks to the ACA.
This is all the good stuff.
The bad is the United States remains the most expensive health system on the planet with outcomes far below many other nations.
Another reason I want Obamacare to succeed is because economists I admire like Dean Baker say that without the cost savings the ACA hopes to achieve, our healthcare costs will destroy this country.
