Sen. Bernie Sanders’s proposal for a single-payer (i.e., US-government funded) health-care system isn’t going anywhere in this Congress.

But as Monitor editors discussed today, what makes this “Medicare for all” bill noteworthy is that it highlights a shift: There’s growing support for it, especially among Democratic leaders, and the American public.

Sixty percent of Americans back government-sponsored health care. That’s up 19 percentage points among Democrats in three years, according to a 2017 Pew poll.

Our politics editor says that’s because "Obamacare" was effectively a half step to a single-payer system. Voters with a diagnosed preexisting condition don’t want to lose access to affordable insurance. Once people get a government benefit, as the Republican repeal effort found, it’s really hard to take it away.

Senator Sanders frames health care as a universal human right. Most Americans agree. In 2015, a Harris poll showed that 84 percent of Americans said a system that ensures sick people get the care they need is a moral issue.

Yes, but for most Republicans, putting health care completely under the government is not the morally – or fiscally – correct way to deliver that care. And half of Americans polled also said that government-funded health care would cost too much.

While the Sanders plan isn’t likely to get traction at the federal level, we wouldn’t be surprised to see some states pushing the frontier of universal health care.

Now our five stories today, illustrating unity, reconciliation, and bridge building in the news.