In Healthcare Debate, Single-Payer Option Moves Front and Center

The Takeaway | Aug 1, 2017

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.

Last week, Republicans failed yet again to find consensus on an Obamacare repeal.

A Pew poll out last month found that 60 percent of people today believe that the federal government is responsible for ensuring healthcare coverage for all Americans. That’s the highest level in nearly a decade.

So while a single-payer healthcare system may feel like a political fantasy now, it’s certainly not far from the minds of many Americans.

Adam Gaffney, a physician and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, serves on the board of directors of Physicians for a National Health Program. He supports a single-payer system, and says there a few reasons many Democrats see this idea as less pie-in-the-sky as in the past.

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich.

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