obama is pushing the public option for health care, which is good. i like the public option because i hope that it will eventually evolve into a single payer system.
obama is specifically ruling out having a single payer system, which is fine. i understand the political realities in this country. while ideally i want our political leadership pushing for single payer outright, i understand the political perils of that route and don't mind a back-door approach if it will eventually get us to single payer.
but opponents are starting to call the public option a "back door approach to single payer." and they're right. that's what it is. or at least that's what i hope it will be.
so what i'm afraid of now is to mollify critics, the democrats will put stuff in the health care reform bill that makes sure that a system with a public option won't eventually evolve into a single payer system. if that's in the bill, then i'm back to preferring we just push for single payer outright.
the danger of relying on a back-door approach is that the other side might notice the back door.
