Take heart, Democrats: This is our first step towards single-payer

THERE HAS been no discussion of single payer. The public option has been ditched. President Obama received no Republican support at his nationally-televised health care forum last week. In response, the Democrats must not concede any more in the final lurch toward health reform. Even then, reform is already so watered down that it is likely to fall apart over the next decade. Democrats would be wise to view this moment not with finality, but as the beginning of the journey toward the sanity of single payer, toward what most of Europe and Canada have.

The health industry lobbyists continue to display a greed that will no doubt boomerang. The day is unavoidable when angry Americans will no longer be duped by fear-mongering about a “government takeover’’ of health care.