So for some true confessions. I am an older white male who has a union job (history teacher) with excellent health care. I have family members who have gone bankrupt because of health care costs and still are huge Trump supporters.
Every single advance in the social welfare safety net has been me with a conservative backlash at the polls and in public policy.
The Progressive Era's push for socialized medicine was soundly defeated and in the 1920s employer based plans were introduced. They were tools to increase employee loyalty and prevent a government program.
FDR wanted a health care component to Social Security but backed off because of opposition and constitutional concerns. By 1938 there was a powerful backlash to New Deal programs, and the next years were a struggle to keep what had been gained.
Medicare and Medicaid were developed in the Great Society of the 1960s under LBJ. That led to the rise of the modern right that brought us Reagan, W Bush, and now Trump.
The Clinton's health care plan was viciously attached by health insurance companies, doctors and hospitals, although they did manage to improve access to care for children.
Obama calculated based on his knowledge of that history that he needed to get doctors and hospitals on board and sacrifice the public option. Even those compromises saw the House and Senate go Republican in 2010 along with many state houses. That allowed them to gerrymander congressional districts and paved the way for the current assault upon health care as a fundamental human right.
I totally agree with your goals. I just don't know how Biden or anyone else can get us there except through an incremental approach. McConnell has so stacked the courts with conservative activists that the fate of the republic may lie in John Roberts hands.
I am so sorry that you and your family have suffered so much because of lack of access to health care. The only way I know to change things is for all of us to do the hard work of developing relationships with people who disagree, telling our stories, and hope that enough people change their minds that the voters will prove that they want Medicare for all.
Thank you again for your passion, activism, and willingness to share your story.
