The last time the Democratic Party released a platform, mass death and illness were haunting the political landscape. By mid-August 2020, more than 160,000 United States citizens had died from COVID-19, and the daily mortality rate had just climbed above 1,000. Vaccines were still months away from being available, and nationwide cases exceeded 5.4 million. Inundated with corpses, hospitals around the country deployed “mobile morgues.”

That summer, against a backdrop of global crisis, the Democratic National Committee unveiled bold new language on health care, pledging to “at last build the health care system the American people have always deserved.” A special chapter of the platform, titled, “Achieving Universal, Affordable, Quality Health Care,” was devoted to outlining a slew of reforms, including a plan to introduce a universal public insurance option through the marketplace set up in the Affordable Care Act.

That platform was itself a compromise with progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who had pushed for a single-payer system and the elimination of private insurance through Medicare for All during his popular campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination that year. In 2024, however, it appears that the Democratic Party has abandoned even its watered-down ideals.

The draft Democratic platform for this election cycle, obtained by Politico in July, contains no mention of the phrases “public option” or “universal health care.” In fact, although polls have shown that health care affordability remains a top concern for voters, the issue does not even receive its own chapter. Instead, “Health Care & Prescription Drugs” is just one of several bullet points under a chapter with the........

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