When Bernie Sanders released his single payer plan earlier this year, I expected many of the smart health policy writers on the left to shout “Hallelujah” – at long last, a serious presidential candidate who will give us Medicare-for-all.

To my surprise, most of them said, more or less, “Thanks, but no thanks.” It’s not that they wouldn’t like a single payer plan, in theory. Most would: it’s been a Democratic aspiration for decades. But they recognize it’s not going to happen in the immediate future. Or even in the not-so-immediate future. Continue reading →

Contributing editor to Politico Magazine and former health care editor-at-large, Politico, Commonwealth Fund journalist in residence and assistant lecturer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.