The Breakdown: Will States Lead on Single-Payer Healthcare Reform?

The Breakdown: Will States Lead on Single-Payer Healthcare Reform?

The Breakdown: Will States Lead on Single-Payer Healthcare Reform?

The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein joins Chris Hayes to discuss whether a new bipartisan proposal in the Senate could pave the way for states to adopt single-payer healthcare systems.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein joins Chris Hayes to discuss  whether a new bipartisan proposal in the Senate could pave the way for states to adopt single-payer healthcare systems.

The Breakdown Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore) and Scott Brown (R-Mass) have proposed a bipartisan amendment to the healthcare bill that would allow states to create an alternative healthcare system, administered on the state level, as long as it is as comprehensive and as affordable as the federal plan. Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders supports the amendment, hoping that his state will become the first to create a single-payer healthcare system. Will the amendment create a loophole that will allow states to lead the fight for single-payer healthcare? On this week’s episode of The Breakdown, DC Editor Chris Hayes talks to Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein about why blue states haven’t tried out single-payer systems already—even before healthcare reform was under consideration.

Related Links

Ezra Klein’s interview with Bernie Sanders on single-payer healthcare.
Talking Points Memo post on Wyden and Brown’s healthcare proposal.
Klein’s blog at Washington Post.

Subscribe to The Breakdown on iTunes to listen to fresh takes on the confusing concepts that make politics, economics and government tick. A new episode every week!

Time is running out to have your gift matched 

In this time of unrelenting, often unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness, I’m grateful for Nation readers like you. 

So many of you have taken to the streets, organized in your neighborhood and with your union, and showed up at the ballot box to vote for progressive candidates. You’re proving that it is possible—to paraphrase the legendary Patti Smith—to redeem the work of the fools running our government.

And as we head into 2026, I promise that The Nation will fight like never before for justice, humanity, and dignity in these United States. 

At a time when most news organizations are either cutting budgets or cozying up to Trump by bringing in right-wing propagandists, The Nation’s writers, editors, copy editors, fact-checkers, and illustrators confront head-on the administration’s deadly abuses of power, blatant corruption, and deconstruction of both government and civil society. 

We couldn’t do this crucial work without you.

Through the end of the year, a generous donor is matching all donations to The Nation’s independent journalism up to $75,000. But the end of the year is now only days away. 

Time is running out to have your gift doubled. Don’t wait—donate now to ensure that our newsroom has the full $150,000 to start the new year. 

Another world really is possible. Together, we can and will win it!

Love and Solidarity,

John Nichols 

Executive Editor, The Nation

Ad Policy
x