The post is less about “single-payer” than the social pretension that permeates the “progressiveâ€? blogosphere. Klein’s blog positively reeks of it.

I think “single payer� is erroneously conflated with “socialized� or government-run medicine.

“Single-payer,� “universal health care,� etc. are euphemisms. If our masters in Washington control the money, it’s government-run health care. And the more control they get the more they will meddle with (all aspects of) the delivery system. My favorite trope on this comes from Panda Bear, MD, whom I quote here.

It’s doubtful either political party will have either the gumption or numbers to anything very significant about it anyway.

You’re probably right. On health care, the Democrats and Republicans are dumb and dumber (not necessarily in that order).

Meanwhile, the Ezra Klein link you provided seems to put the lie to your reverse-telescope focus. Whatever the tone of your brief quote, “distasteful” seems to be off-point as a characterization, in that he goes on in detail to address the issue. If single-payer is BS, it seems that such narrow quote-mining isn’t necessary to prove it. And, as I’ve said on my blog, I think “single payer” is erroneously conflated with “socialized” or government-run medicine. My view of it is a system that streamlines the payment of health care costs by eliminating the myriad insurers who divert gazillions of dollars from providing care into the pockets of executives, investors, and add to cost by their enormous (compareded to Medicare) overheads. There’s no reason why “single payer” means an end to the free enterprise format of the providers of health care; only of the unnecessary siphoning of money by the insurance industry which adds little if any value to the system. That’s what I see, anyhow. And when push comes to shove, it’s doubtful either political party will have either the gumption or numbers to anything very significant about it anyway.