The Post

Keep it simple on healthcare, Dems

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Suppose you have an unhinged neighbour who wants to burn down your house. You’d probably spend much of your time making sure that that doesn’t happen. Drafting plans for a megamansio­n you hope to build where your house once stood probably wouldn’t be a priority.

But that seems to be the approach of some Democratic aspirants for the presidency, who spent big chunks of their recent debates arguing about details of costly ‘‘Medicare for All’’ plans that have no chance of becoming law.

The most expansive Medicare for All plans, offered by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, would remake the American health industry in a way that would do away with private

insurance. Plans such as these are not happening any time soon, even if Democrats manage to win the presidency.

They won’t happen for the simple reason that too many Americans have private insurance that they either like or would be apprehensi­ve about losing for some uncertain alternativ­e. Worse yet, the more Democrats talk about expensive and unattainab­le healthcare plans, the more they abet Trump’s re-election efforts.

It’s time for Democrats to get their priorities straight. With great effort and at substantia­l political cost, they built a better healthcare structure. Focus on saving it and making some home improvemen­ts, not on erecting some future dream home.

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