Harry Reid Reveals that Obamacare Is Step One Towards Single Payer Healthcare

During an interview on Nevada Week In Review, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid revealed that Obamacare is the first steps towards single payer healthcare for all.

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According to the Las Vegas Sun:

Reid said he thinks the country has to “work our way past” insurance-based health care during a Friday night appearance on Vegas PBS’ program “Nevada Week in Review.”

“What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” Reid said.

When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Now we know why Republicans are so desperate to repeal Obamacare. The ACA is just the beginning of a meaningful healthcare system overhaul. Republicans know that once people experience the full benefits of Obamacare, it is going to be impossible to repeal. Republican lies about healthcare reform are being debunked on a daily basis, and time is running out.

The timing of Senator Reid’s revelation was far from a coincidence. With the sign up period for the insurance exchanges starting soon, and Republicans mounting a last gasp effort to stop Obamacare this summer, the coming weeks are the likely final big showdown over the healthcare law.

According to Speaker Boehner’s office, here are just a few of the Obamacare related bills that the House will be voting on in the coming weeks and months:

A bill by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) to get the IRS out of the president’s health care law; ·

A bill to protect taxpayers by requiring verification for Obamacare subsidies; ·

Legislation to stop IPAB, the Obama administration’s health care rationing board, which even former DNC chairman Howard Dean says is a major problem; ·

Legislation to get rid of the slush funds the president is using to implement the law; ·

Other targeted bills aimed at fracturing the coalition of support that President Obama has used to keep the health care law in place.

House Republicans are literally throwing a tantrum with these votes, but it will all result in nothing.

Reid’s comments are also an effort to get some Democrats who have been griping about the law because it wasn’t a single payer system on board. Hopefully, these people will understand that Obamacare was the starting point for healthcare reform, and that the ultimate goal is a single payer system.

During his press conference, President Obama asked Republicans why they don’t want 30 million people to have healthcare? His question should be broadened to ask, why don’t Republicans want every American to have healthcare?

The Republican problem has always been that they did a great job demonizing the term Obamacare, but people like the benefits in the ACA. The term Obamacare may never be politically popular, but what the law does is.

The underlying message from Reid was that if Democrats ever want to see a single payer system, they have to first make sure that Obamacare remains the law of the land.

The offensive is on, and Democrats look ready for the fight.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association