Vos seems to forget that more than 40% of all Americans already rely on the public health care coverage and that 40% of the nation’s children depend on public programs for their health insurance. Moreover, these public health care programs — Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and the Children’s Health Insurance Program — are far more efficient than private insurance, devoting less to administrative cost and more to actual healthcare.

What about the argument that Wisconsin already has better health insurance coverage rates than many states? That’s true only because Wisconsin’s economy is disproportionately based on old, legacy, industrial employers that still provide health care coverage. This situation is rapidly changing and can’t last. These legacy industries were once heavily unionized. They began providing union negotiated healthcare benefits during World War II when wage increases were frozen. But collective bargaining is under attack and negotiating power weakened (under the Orwellian banner of “right to work”). As a result, these enterprises are increasingly shifting the cost of health insurance to Wisconsin workers and their families in the form of increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Some have even eliminated health insurance altogether. Even if these legacy industries survive, they will do so with many fewer employees as human labor is replaced by increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence.