Sanders launches Medicare for all with surprising support

Huffington Post - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will introduce a new version of his plan to give everybody government-run health insurance, potentially opening a new chapter in the ongoing debate over how to make health care in the U.S. more affordable and available.

The plan calls for an overhaul of American health insurance with a souped-up, more generous version of Medicare replacing nearly all private health insurance - and government exerting far more control over the cost of medical care. It would arguably be the most ambitious social welfare initiative in U.S. history, ...

Sanders has been waging a frequently lonely crusade for this kind of universal health care since the early 1990s, when he first came to Congress. In 2013, when he introduced a previous iteration of the bill, he had no support from his colleagues. But in a clear sign of the idea’s increasing popularity, as well as Sanders’ influence within progressive politics, 15 Democratic senators are co-sponsoring the bill.

That’s fully one-third of the Senate Democratic caucus. Staffers told HuffPost they had expected less than half as many senators to sign on, and they attributed the broad appeal to a five-month drafting period in which they solicited input from the offices of 19 senators, including several who they knew never had any intention of getting behind the bill.