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Obama has lately come out in favor of such a single payer system side by side with private insurance, but it wasn't that long ago that he opposed it.
In a town hall meeting more than a month ago in response to a question about health care reform Obama said that "while the present system is not what we would want if we were starting from scratch it's the system we have and it's the system I will work with." Meaning he was more interested in making changes in the present system than initiating universal health care.
Now Obama seems to have reversed himself (so what else is new?) as polls show most Americans favor the universal single payer system. Certainly most doctors who aren't concerned with their own financial bottom line first, favor it.
But Obama still can't be trusted to follow through. Any change in the political wind can blow Obama along with it. But Congress can be trusted to do what the majority of Americans want them to do. The ball is really in their court anyway, and Obama is much more of a rubber stamp regarding health care since it's a bill that will come out of congress, and is something that has been on the Democratic Party agenda for 15 years. Whatever comes through Congress simply needs Obama's signature and it will get it.
The Republicans oppose a single payer system because it will put a big dent in the profits of insurance and drug companies. And they will be out in force with their usual brand of hollow and unsubstantiated scare tactics. They have said that a public option is a deal breaker, but so what? Obama wants them on board for political cover but the reality is they are not needed. And besides, they had 6 years controlling all branches of government and another two as a substantial minority and everything they did was a disaster. There is no need for bi-partisanship and the Republicans can't be trusted either to do what is in the best interests of the country.
This is what John Bohener said about a universal single payer system:
"Listen, if you like going to the DMV and you think they do a great job, or you like going to the post office and think it's the most efficient thing you've run into, then you'll love the government-run health care system that they're proposing because that's basically what you're going to have."
Actually I think the post office does a pretty good job so that isn't going to work for them. But this is how the Republicans think. They are so inept at government and running anything that their vision of anything paid for by the government and run by the government is a disaster. By their reasoning you would think that NASA is just an inept buracracy. I'm sure Boehner thinks the photographs from the Hubble telescope are just a mess.
How much Republican noise will influence Obama is hard to tell. But the way to insure a single payer system as an option is for people who support it, to let their member of congress know.
There is an alternate plan being discussed called co-ops which would be privately run by its own members, like a food co-op, as a replacement for a single payer system. It is a bad idea and mostly cosmetic. It is designed more for the benefit of the insurance and drug companies and a compromise with Republicans and it should be rejected.
People need to take matters into their own hands, take everything Obama says with a grain of salt or aspirin, and most importantly, if they want real healthcare reform to call their member of congress in the morning.
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