Many of us know the US pays too much because we don’t have single-payer healthcare. Naturally this appeals to left Democrats. But playing them for suckers is not going to help anybody. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a Vox article critical of Hillary’s campaign strategy, but …

“In 1994, Clinton spearheaded a doomed overhaul of the health care system. I’ve interviewed dozens of people who worked with her on that effort, and who have worked with her since that effort, and the lessons her team took away are clear and deeply held. When it comes to health reform, do not screw with what people already have.

The Clinton plan wasn’t single-payer, but it was a lot closer than what we have now. Her plan would have upended the insurance of virtually everyone in America. And it was eviscerated because of it. The fact that, on net, there would have been many more winners than losers didn’t matter. That much disruption is impossible to pass through the American political system. It set the cause of universal health care back a generation.

Clinton’s view is that anyone who actually cares about insuring the uninsured needs to grapple with the power of the status quo — and Sanders hasn’t come close. He hasn’t even released a real plan, which, quite fairly, drives Clinton nuts. 

Obamacare, meanwhile, rests on shaky ground. Barely 60 percent of states have even accepted the Medicaid expansion. And one of the prime arguments against Obamacare is that, modest as it was, it still canceled some insurance plans. For Sanders to crash into this debate with a vague proposal to cancel many, many, many more is to imperil the fragile gains that have already been made. (Full story here.)

P.S. I’ve been reading a lot of behavioral economics, and one of the most solid results is that people value something they have much more than if they don’t have it. For example, offer to sell them a cup for 3 bucks and they won’t buy it. But give it to them and then offer to buy it back for $6 and they won’t sell it. If it’s theirs, it’s worth more than twice as much. And that’s with something simple. Add to that “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” and Bernie doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting single payer. All he can do is screw up Obamacare. This is what I call being an accidental reactionary, and we see quite a bit of it.

The problem is, it’s been scientifically proven that Republicans do exist, and you gotta take that into account — even if you’re a “socialist.”