"Yes, but . . . "

Today's NY Times piece describing how the Health Care Industry in Talks to Shape Policy, wherein Medicare for All/single Payer is pre-determined to be off the table is but the latest example of "Yes, But-ism...".

Yes, they admit, "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All" is the best policy and makes the most sense economically. Yes, it is the best way to actually get to 100% coverage. Yes, it would mean that nobody would be bankrupted because they or a family member got sick. Yes, it free up both workers and employers from constraining burden they have that their counterparts in the rest of developed world do not have. Yes, it would mean we could actually reduce total and control costs through the benefits of reduced overhead, monospony, global budgeting and planning.

The "but" is always alleged political feasibility. Remember 1994 they say. As if Single Payer was what the Clinton's had proposed. Indeed it was the same "Yes, but" that ruled that day back then, when single payer was not allowed to be at the table as early as the pre-inagural economic summit.

It was a mistake then and it is today.