Fox News Admits That Disastrous Trumpcare Is Laying The Groundwork For A Single-Payer System

Many folks are looking for a silver lining in what as been a disastrous 24 hours for advocates of improving health care in America. Well, we may have just found it in the most unlikely of places: Fox News.

On Thursday’s edition of Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News, conservative talking head Charles Krauthammer predicted that the GOP-led effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act is laying the groundwork for a single-payer system.

Krauthammer even went as far predicting that a single-payer health care system will be a reality within seven years.

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“I would predict that in less than seven years, we’ll be in a single-payer system,” Krauthammer said. “That’s the great irony of this.”

This is not just a dark day for progressives. It’s also a deeply disturbing and fearful day for millions of Americans of all political stripes who are worried that their health insurance – their means of surviving – is at risk of being taken away so Republicans can score an empty political victory.

At the end of the day, though, the failure of Trumpcare to gain popular support and traction in Congress is bolstering proponents of the Affordable Care Act and those who are advocating to expand coverage even further.

“In the end, I think Obamacare wins the day because it changed expectations,” Krauthammer continued. “Look at the terms of the debate. Republicans are not arguing for the free market anymore. They have sort of accepted that the electorate sees health care as not just any commodity. It’s not like purchasing a steak or a car. It is something people now have a sense that government ought to guarantee.”

Yes, this was a dark day for the United States of America, not just because of the GOP vote to kill health care for millions of Americans, but because of the shameless Republican celebration that followed that vote.

But the fact that Fox News is now discussing single-payer as inevitable is at least some cause for optimism today.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.