Single-Payer Healthcare Becomes Wedge-Issue In Maryland Dem Gov Primary

A Bernie Sanders-style single payer healthcare system is quickly becoming a wedge issue in Maryland’s Democrat gubernatorial primary, with Ben Jealous staking out the most radical position and differentiating himself even as he continues to refuse to detail how much his government takeover of healthcare would cost.

The Baltimore Sun reports that “only Jealous staked out a Bernie Sanders-like position.”

When Baker, Vignarajah and Jealous were all asked about health insurance, only Jealous staked out a Bernie Sanders-like position in favor of a single-payer system. While many experts have questioned whether such a system is practical for a single state to operate, Jealous insisted it could be done.

…Baker said he would support an expansion of the Affordable Care Act. Vignarajah, who said she found while working in the Obama White House that single payer wasn’t achievable, advocated adding a “public option” to compete with for-profit insurance companies in Maryland’s insurance exchange.

Notably, Kevin Kamenetz apparently chose not to weigh in on single-payer, which begs the question – does Kamenetz agree with Ben Jealous in supporting a Sanders style government takeover of healthcare?

As the Baltimore Sun notes, Democrats “face a host of problems in unseating Republican Gov. Larry Hogan…with a robust regional economy and the likelihood of being substantially outspent by the well-heeled incumbent.” A hard-left turn towards single-payer healthcare, which would ban private insurance, massively hike taxes and cause mass layoffs in Maryland’s insurance industry, threatens to make the Democrats’ already tall task of taking on a popular incumbent governor all but impossible.