In February, Abdul published an op-ed in Current Affairs about efforts to rebrand Medicare-for-All.
As we gear up for the all-out brawl that will be the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, the policy battle lines are being etched. Healthcare was central in the 2018 midterms, and it will be a core issue in 2020. Over the last several years, the call for “Medicare-for-All” has reached a crescendo pitch. Polls show 50 to 70 percent popularity overall, with support among Democrats soaring above 80 percent.
That’s a long way from the obscurity in which single-payer healthcare had lingered for decades, long derided by rightward Democrats and Republicans alike as unworkable, overpriced, or even “not American” (in the words of billionaire Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz). Given its popularity, many Democrats have co-sponsored Medicare-for-All bills in the Senate and the House—a full 17 Senators and 124 Representatives. Many of the leading potential presidential contenders have co-sponsored the bill, such as Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, and support for Medicare-for-All has become one of the most important political litmus tests of 2020…Read the full article at Current Affairs.