Good to see Sen. David “Insurance Companies” Frokt involved in a effort to sidestep single-payer. https://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/126427/david-frockt

Why the selective journalism, Rich Smith? It's almost as if you were unaware there's more we can do to bring Universal Healthcare to WA than call our elected officials. It's almost as if you didn't speak to the campaign director for I-1600. It's almost as if you didn't see I-1600 supporters in attendance (the photo conveniently cuts them out of the photo).

If anyone in Stranger-land wants to know, since Rich Smith-- the chosen journalist for all things Single Payer, can't bring himself to mention a people's initiative, we'll let you know you can show your support in other ways. You can sign the I-1600 petition and volunteer for Whole Washington. This initiative is based on the bill that hasn't made it out of committee but with funding and financial analysis attached. If you want elected officials to do their jobs, this is another avenue to demand the healthcare we need (vision and dental included).

With insurance rates approved to go up an avg of 19% next year and the pre-existing conditions mandate under attack, we must get involved in any and all ways possible.

1-1600 is a means tested public option. It is not true single payer. It would not cover all residents, it would not be free at point of service. State SP plans are bad. Full national Medicare for all or get the fuck out.

@3. Right. A National program. That'll happen real soon. You can do all the purist grandstanding you need to, but I'd prefer that the most vulnerable populations be able to opt the fuck in as soon as possible. I have no idea what you mean when you say 1600 would't cover all residents. Anyone could opt in.

I’m not sure I have any civil words appropriate for comment. Oh yeah. Thanks for the picture you took, I did tweet @TheStanger last night and named you, giving you photo credit for taking the picture of only HALF of @yeson1600 who showed up in support. I guess we know just where we stand (that would be pushed to the back, quite by design). Did you know one of the women volunteering hours on end for the 522,000 Washingtonians with no coverage and hence, vulnerable to the worst case scenario, is 88 yrs old???! Eighty-eight years young and she dances and gathers signatures around me, the Founder of Red Berets Medicare for All. These are the caliber of people that you sh!t on yesterday when you opted to protect political posturing by individuals and orgs, and not include a solid initiative to the people with incredible grassroots support, backed by an economic analysis by Dr. Gerald Friedman. You have joined the ranks of the establishment press and by your omission, we will never know what you might have cost working families.

I'm confused... why don't you mention I-1600? We could have this right now without waiting for politicians to agree on something.

Help support I-1600! We have the opportunity to get a universal healthcare program in Washington state - get it on the ballot by signing a petition. Here's how to find where to sign! https://wholewashington.nationbuilder.com/where_do_i_sign

I-1600 in every state?! Then we would have 50 state battles to get waivers that will tear apart Medicare and dash any hope of a national program that would have cut administrative costs and created a nation-wide efficient risk pool.

We need to enlarge an already working (but beleaguered) Medicare and make it for everyone.

Dangerous move by Jayapal who is supposedly a supporter of Medicare for All. Red state politicians will make hay of any bill that carves up Medicare and allows more privatization.

Who are all these big egos from I-1600 who have to make this all about them? The Whole Wa Healthcare Trust ballot initiative has like 60,000 signatures of 260,000 needed to make the ballot. YOU HAVE GOT OVER 75% TO GO.

GET A GRIP PEOPLE it ain't gonna happen. You are 3 wks away from the deadline for gathering signatures. The story here is Rep. Jayapal's bill not your ego trip.

Forget about a failed initiative that went down the tubes because of poor leadership (Georgia Davenport seriously?????) and taking ppl of color for granted. Move on. You're wasting what little of your donors' money you may have left on your PIPE DREAM BALLOT MEASURE.

GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!!!!!

I'm not getting why this article isn't mentioning 1600, either. Especially since they're giving Frockt a plug about how terrible it is that his bill died in Senate. 1600 would basically put his bill on the ballot, is what I'm understanding. So, if the Stranger likes Frockt's bill so much, why aren't they pushing 1600? Also, I'm sure Jayapal supports 1600 since it's endorsed heavily by Bernie's Our Revolution people and some other heavy-hitters in the MedicareFor All movements at both the state and national levels.They're not saying "Hey, this is single payer," but they're giving it the nod.

Yes, I agree it looks like a means-based public option. Still, isn't it movement forward? And - while (of course) we need national single payer - the real thing, like Canada or Australia - isn't this also like pot legalization? That is, it starts state-by-state causing a domino effect whereupon we eventually wind up with federal legislation?

Part of the problem, too, I've heard (and those who are the experts - feel free to chime in) - is that Washington doesn't have an income tax .. why this version is "less pure," say, that sb562 in California. But .. I'll let others speak on that.

From what I've read, it's a far better thing that what Washington State currently has. So frankly, I'm quite puzzled that people aren't hopping faster to sign so it gets on the ballot. Meanwhile - they're so quickly gathering signatures to protect poor Bezos from having to pay any taxes to support the homeless.

Is Washington State really a blue and progressive place? Is Seattle? Certainly there's enough people here who fancy themselves Medicare For All supporters to get enough signatures for the ballot.

I am not sure what the point of interviewing me was Rich Smith, if you weren’t even going to mention our efforts. But even so, I am glad that every single one of our amazing volunteers knew that an income tax isn’t unconstitutional and the exact rules about implementing one, and therefore were able to correct that misperception you had. Maybe now that you know we have done our homework, you’ll actually look at the initiative. Here is a good start: https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-inspired-activists-push-referendum-for-universal-health-care-in-washington-state/

Just for the record, state-based healthcare systems are NOT "single-payer" or "Medicare for All," so stop calling them that. At best, they are the initial elements of a 50-plus-payer system (for the 50 states, DC, and the territories) ... with 50 different administrative bureaucracies, 50 different financing systems, 50 different pools of insureds, 50 different provider networks, 50 different benefits packages, and 50 different claims review processes. And they will not lend themselves naturally to being transformed into an efficient national single-payer system, any more than Canada's provincially based 13-payer system -- which doesn't cover dental, optical, out-patient pharma, and, in some provinces, even ambulance rides -- has in over 50 years of operation. A 50-plus-payer system may end up resulting in more or less universal coverage (though probably only for a reduced package of "essential" benefits thanks to the free-rider problem and the interstate-business-driven race to the bottom), but it's unlikely to result in lower medical costs for the citizens of most states because of gross administrative redundancy and weak price-bargaining power in all but the biggest states. And with Americans overpaying for medical care by around a trillion dollars a year (a full 6% of GDP in administrative featherbedding and price-gouging) compared to other developed countries, it's worth asking yourself whether this is a smart short-term move compared to fighting all-out for a true, national single-payer system. The prospects may seem dim right now, but so they seemed for women's suffrage, the end of Jim Crow, and marriage equality. There is already a huge base of popular support for national single-payer, and with the status quo getting worse and worse, year after year, a breaking point will come, no matter how two-faced and corrupt our legislators may be.

@12 Good points, but .. don't see why state campaigns have to be in competition with a campaign for national passage. If people don't like "free riders," then create more jobs with more tax-payers paying into the system. Sounds like a win:win incentive to me.