Bernie Sanders is not done. He may never be president. But he may make a more lasting mark on our history by leading the campaign for “Medicare for all,” a single-payer health-care system that is bound to become, sooner or later, the law of the land.

Bernie will soon introduce his “Medicare for all” legislation in Congress. Watch for the announcement. It’s not likely that all the details of his bill will end up in the version that becomes law. There is sure to be a long era of fierce debate. But the United States will eventually become the last major industrialized nation to guarantee adequate health care for all its people.

When that day comes, we will look back on the Republicans’ failed assault on Obamacare as a decisive turning point. The GOP had hoped to destroy the Democrats’ halting efforts toward universal health care. In fact, they made vast numbers of Americans think hard about universal health care and the government’s role. A clear majority decided that the government should indeed make sure that every American gets basic health care, as a right not a privilege.

Once people come to that conclusion, as so many millions now have, it’s hard to resist the logical implication: The government must “insure” health care for all, quite literally, by providing health care insurance for all.

We know how well it works. Just look at how happy most people are with Medicare. “Medicare for all” is the obvious next step. It will be a long, hard political fight. It may take years. But it is bound to win in the end. So it’s a political fight well worth enlisting in. The more energy we put in now, even though victory seems so distant, the sooner that victory will come.

Ira Chernus

Longmont