Dem lawmaker predicts single-payer healthcare

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) predicted Sunday that the U.S. would adopt a single-payer, national healthcare system.

“It’s in our face,” McDermott told a university healthcare group in a speech, according to the Monterey County Herald. “We can’t avoid it. That’s why something is going to happen.”

McDermott cited the confluence of several factors, chief among them the election of President Obama and the business community’s desire to divest of healthcare costs, as driving the momentum for a single-payer system.

Congressional Republicans have long opposed a nationalized system, having worked tirelessly to defeat President Bill Clinton’s proposed plan in the early 1990s.

“We’ve got too many people today who have no coverage at all, and they’re just crossing their fingers hoping nothing happens to them until they can find a job,” McDermott said. “You can’t tolerate a system that operates that way.”

McDermott also said that constituents and grassroots activists could significantly advance the cause of a single-payer system.

“There will be a campaign to support this from the grass roots. You need to place pressure on your congressman,” he said. “They will react to people asking them, why don’t you do something? There’s no question people can make a real impact.”