I knew I'd come across the "Medicare for All with a Strong, Robust Private Option" somewhere recently. It was in a very useful comment posted by Good Grief on the Ed Schultz "Come to Medicare for All" diary at DKos this past Sunday (Sat?). I can't find how to link to a particular comment, so I'm pasting all of it. The comment is near the bottom.

The phrase "single payer with a robust private option" is in Point 2, and it seems to have been used in the CA single payer campaign:

Let's roll! (4+ / 0-)

Let’s change the frame, control the game and make single payer happen!

Here's a start on a few crisp phrases and reframes. First, one good way to start the campaign is to remind people that California, the largest state in the union and 5th or 6th largest economy on earth, has already passed a well-designed single payer bill twice before it was axed by Arnold. SB 810 is poised to go through a third time and someday an enlightened guv will sign it.

A few other phrasings:

"Publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare" -- This phrasing emphasizes doctors are autonomous and work for themselves to deliver healthcare (as they do in Medicare) and not for the govt. This also indicates SP is not strictly-speaking "socialized medicine" which usually means the govt hires the doctors and has far greater control over medical decision-making. Under SP, docs make their own decisions with patients (as they do in Medicare, a single payer system).

If an all-out SP campaign gets moving, a fun way to phrase it would be "single payer with a robust private option" for people to buy additional coverage for private rooms, etc. This reversal would put the more affluent in same the spot we've been in, fighting for a public option, "fighting for their rights" (as it were), which might have the effect of keeping them on board as they won't be left out. This also moves discussion toward lots of options for insurance companies to insure things, and shifts focus toward a jobs program (broadly speaking) for insurance co employees solved partly by some of them being absorbed into the national SP administration system, etc (essentially an expansion of Medicare). "Self-responsibility" for their hard work denying claims and dropping policies, in some cases, might come into play. However, without being vengeful we wish them well as we reorient our economy to a single payer system to save money for employers, individuals and families.

With the money saved, allowing businesses to compete more vigorously; retain jobs and grow jobs, single payer would be viewed as not just a health plan but an economic plan.

Detractors call single payer "government-run healthcare" but the private insurance system is "Wall-Street run healthcare."

"One America, One Payer", a YouTube question I sent to candidates (particularly Edwards) during debates in 2007.

There are lots of refreshing creative ways we can reframe the single payer campaign. I'm suggesting these and others to MoveOn, Ed and KO and Rachel et al. Let's hear some other phrasings/counter-arguments we can use when we meet people and debate on the blogs;, speak at conferences and gatherings; write letters to the editor and write to our Critters.

_________________________________________
Get on board California's single payer bill SB 810

by good grief on Sun Aug 02, 2009 at 03:34:30 AM EDT

I meant to add (1+ / 0-)

Jawbone's suggestion above as part of my first paragraph in my comment above, to point to Medicare since most people are already familiar with its success and efficiency, to refer to "Medicare for All" and HR 676. In addition to this we can point to California's success getting a bill through legislature, no mean feat.

by good grief on Sun Aug 02, 2009 at 03:42:52 AM EDT

(I messed up the numbering of the points and haven't figured out how to correct the bullet barrage. C'est la vie!)

Kudos to California's single payer campaign people! And a big thank you to Good Grief for sharing.

I