Majority of American Voters Want Medicare For All

[HorusRa2 5,005]

https://www.kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-january-2019/

The Kaiser Family Foundation has been public opinion polling with regard to healthcare for quite some time, and their new study shows the net approval for Medicare for All has gone up by 11% since October. In this survey, people were asked if they were supportive of the following:  "Having a National Health Plan, sometimes called Medicare-For-All, in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan."

81% of Democrats said they favor Medicare for All. 53% of Independents said they were in favor for Medicare for All and 23% of Republicans responded that they favored Medicare for All. 

 

Note: Just as an FYI, at the time of passage 49% of people said the ACA was a good thing, 40% said it was a bad thing and 11% had no opinion. As of the recent survey, 53% of people have a favorable view of ACA and 47% have an unfavorable view. 

 

https://news.gallup.com/poll/126929/slim-margin-americans-support-healthcare-bill-passage.aspx

https://www.kff.org/interactive/kff-health-tracking-poll-the-publics-views-on-the-aca/#?response=Favorable--Unfavorable&aRange=twoYear

 

I think it's safe to say that Medicare for All is at the very least as popular as the ACA at the time it was passed and so we should probably go ahead and get on the Medicare for All bus because it's the actual policy subscription that will give the people what they want: universal affordable healthcare that they can rely on not to bankrupt them. 

[Eighteen 5,430]

yeah but the attacks on M4A haven't really come out full force yet. those numbers are gonna change i think once trump goes on a real offensive should a progressive pushing for M4A win. after all if you all remember, when obama was trying to get the ACA passed (which was VERY difficult to do) republicans had people actually believing that the government had planned to line sick people up and shoot them execution style. people went around protesting obama with very vulgar signs (one i remember obama hanging from a noose). healthcare is not an easy task and liberals are gonna catch a lot of **** for ironically wanting to help people.

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

Pretty key number there is that 53% of independents support it. Not to mention 81% of Democrats

And yet certain centrists on this site want to keep fearmongering about it by pushing stale conservative talking points they pick up from the coproate media they follow and then turn around to claim the American people don't want this

[Eighteen 5,430]

but yeah we should be on the m4a bus no matter what because healthcare (unless you're one of the lucky ones) is pretty HORRIBLE in the USA cost-wise

[homomo 23,883]

It’s so funny how middle/upper class Americans will gladly pay $500 per month for their health insurance, but won’t pay a small FRACTION OF THAT in taxes (which comes from their wages anyway in small amounts) for free healthcare?

Like okay if you wanna spent 1000x the amount for a plan that doesn’t even cover everything... then that’s your problem

edit: furthermore, the lower/middle class wouldn’t even have to pay for it, because the billionaires could also easily cover it too. 

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

8 minutes ago, Eighteen said:

yeah but the attacks on M4A haven't really come out full force yet. those numbers are gonna change i think once trump goes on a real offensive should a progressive pushing for M4A win. after all if you all remember, when obama was trying to get the ACA passed (which was VERY difficult to do) republicans had people actually believing that the government had planned to line sick people up and shoot them execution style. people went around protesting obama with very vulgar signs (one i remember obama hanging from a noose). healthcare is not an easy task and liberals are gonna catch a lot of **** for ironically wanting to help people.

Trump and Republicans will do this regardless of the policy and regardless of the candidate that wins. If we're going to base what policies we want on how they're going to react, then what's the point? 

Instead of playing defense all the time, Dems need to start playing offense for once. 

Also, the corporate Dems have been going after M4A for months, including at every single debate, and yet still it's this popular.

It's pretty clear this is what nearly all Democrats want, and what a majority of Americans overall want. 

[HorusRa2 5,005]

6 minutes ago, Eighteen said:

yeah but the attacks on M4A haven't really come out full force yet. those numbers are gonna change i think once trump goes on a real offensive should a progressive pushing for M4A win. after all if you all remember, when obama was trying to get the ACA passed (which was VERY difficult to do) republicans had people actually believing that the government had planned to line sick people up and shoot them execution style. people went around protesting obama with very vulgar signs (one i remember obama hanging from a noose). healthcare is not an easy task and liberals are gonna catch a lot of **** for ironically wanting to help people.

Can you really say that when during the debates, Bernie would be on stage advocating for Medicare for All and they would break to commercials that attacked Medicare for All specifically? Bernie has been talking about Medicare for all since 2015 so I think you're underselling it just a bit. While you're right that it hasn't faced scrutiny from a general election campaign, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be something to try. I found this article from a month before the ACA was passed and it grew to 59% opposing it. So a month later that disapproval went down by quite a bit once it was actually passed. Another difference is Obama was relatively young as an activist so IDK how long he was advocating for single-payer (which also wasn't the ACA) but this is something Bernie has advocated for his entire political life. I think we could safely say that the person best to advocate for it in a general election would be Bernie. So I think we can't say for sure how it would bottom out with Bernie advocating for it in a general election and Trump trying to tell people they could have their limb in their lap and they wouldn't receive healthcare, wait in the waiting room for hours while dying, etc etc.  

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2010/03/22/new-cnn-poll-59-oppose-obamacare/

[Guillaume Hamon 6,989]

When you think all the people, including from the left, who said Sanders was just not suggesting something realistic when he started defending it.

And it was just 4 years ago so the people switch from "borderline absurd" to "popular and wanted" was super fast for a political position...

[Eighteen 5,430]

1 minute ago, HorusRa2 said:

Can you really say that when during the debates, Bernie would be on stage advocating for Medicare for All and they would break to commercials that attacked Medicare for All specifically? Bernie has been talking about Medicare for all since 2015 so I think you're underselling it just a bit. While you're right that it hasn't faced scrutiny from a general election campaign, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be something to try. I found this article from a month before the ACA was passed and it grew to 59% opposing it. So a month later that disapproval went down by quite a bit once it was actually passed. Another difference is Obama was relatively young as an activist so IDK how long he was advocating for single-payer (which also wasn't the ACA) but this is something Bernie has advocated for his entire political life. I think we could safely say that the person best to advocate for it in a general election would be Bernie. So I think we can't say for sure how it would bottom out with Bernie advocating for it in a general election and Trump trying to tell people they could have their limb in their lap and they wouldn't receive healthcare, wait in the waiting room for hours while dying, etc etc.  

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2010/03/22/new-cnn-poll-59-oppose-obamacare/

bernie might be able to convince people, idk. i'm for m4a, but i'm thinking about what i personally believe is possible in this country and i think that it's only possible if done gradually (but again, i have no idea i'm only going off of how politics has worked in the past, we're in kind of a new era). obama acknowledged that single payer would have been better than ACA, but he didn't believe people would go for it at the time (which i think he was right). but as for today, things seem promising looking at those numbers. but i think that could be a result of the fact that right now liberals are fighting amongst one another. once the fight becomes liberal vs conservative, that's when things are going to get ugly, and i think that is when i personally will be able to better gauge whether or not m4a is possible. i can see the republican arguments now: massive job loss in the healthcare industry, crazy socialism, etc. i have a feeling that right now we're in a liberal bubble that's gonna be burst quickly once we get into the general (but i'm also a strong pessimist when it comes to moving the line in the USA). again, just my opinion. 

[HorusRa2 5,005]

2 minutes ago, Eighteen said:

bernie might be able to convince people, idk. i'm for m4a, but i'm thinking about what i personally believe is possible in this country and i think that it's only possible if done gradually (but again, i have no idea i'm only going off of how politics has worked in the past, we're in kind of a new era). obama acknowledged that single payer would have been better than ACA, but he didn't believe people would go for it at the time (which i think he was right). but as for today, things seem promising looking at those numbers. but i think that could be a result of the fact that right now liberals are fighting amongst one another. once the fight becomes liberal vs conservative, that's when things are going to get ugly, and i think that is when i personally will be able to better gauge whether or not m4a is possible. i can see the republican arguments now: massive job loss in the healthcare industry, crazy socialism, etc. i have a feeling that right now we're in a liberal bubble that's gonna be burst quickly once we get into the general (but i'm also a strong pessimist when it comes to moving the line in the USA). again, just my opinion. 

Honestly I think the best thing democrats have for them, and almost nobody is realizing it, is that people are getting desperate at this point. People are dying earlier, working harder by working longer hours, people are abusing substances at higher rates, depression and suicides are at higher rates than ever. The political party that is capable of convincing the mass majority of people that they are going to help them out is going to win. Democrats have a real opportunity here with M4A because everybody pays for healthcare or wants access to healthcare. It's one of the easiest ways to lower expenditures for families from working and middle class backgrounds and to restructure our economy to prepare for the challenges that are waiting for us: automation & climate change. 

 

Republicans can scream socialism all they want but poor people can only take so much before they demand change and I think we're getting very close to being there. If not this cycle, it'll definitely be the next cycle.

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

Every modern nation has some form or another of a single payer system for a reason. It’s time for America to catch up to the rest of the world 

[Economy 52,844]

Health care system in the US is a mess plain and simple

 

A system twice as expensive per capita to not even cover everyone

 

With the same amount of money spent on a universal healthcare system, the US could have the best universal healthcare system ever without issues like wait times for certain things skeptists keep bringing up...

 

 

[PoshLife 17,019]

The same poll found that 68% of Americans support establishing a public option that competes alongside private insurance. That's 12 points higher than support for Medicare for All. It gets 73% of Independents and even 42% of Republicans.

I appreciate that you don't always just go with the plan that's most popular, but voter sentiment matters: healthcare will absolutely be on the ballot this year, because it is the number one issue that Americans are most concerned with. If I'm a Democrat running for office, especially in a battleground state or district, I'm talking about making healthcare more affordable and I'm hammering Republicans for their votes to take away health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

The public option will make healthcare affordable for everyone by introducing competition to the system - including in markets where there's literally only one insurer right now -  and will also appeal to a vast number of Independents and even some moderate Republicans. And it won't cost tens of trillions of dollars or necessitate a tax increase on the Middle Class. That's the plan to run on because it's the plan we know can win. Give the people what they want.

[Whispering 18,865]

Misleading title.

From the same report you linked:

Larger majorities of the public favor more incremental changes to the health care system such as a Medicare buy-in plan for adults between the ages of 50 and 64 (77 percent), a Medicaid buy-in plan for individuals who don’t receive health coverage through their employer (75 percent), and an optional program similar to Medicare for those who want it (74 percent). Both the Medicare buy-in plan and Medicaid buy-in plan also garner majority support from Republicans (69 percent and 64 percent­).

Moving forward, half of Democrats would rather see the new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives focus their efforts on improving and protecting the ACA (51 percent), while about four in ten want them to focus on passing a national Medicare-for-all plan (38 percent).

The share of Democrats who want Congress to focus on passing a national Medicare-for-all plan is down 10 percentage points from March 2018.

Net favorability is negative  if people hear it would threaten the current Medicare program (-28 percentage points), require most Americans to pay more in taxes (-23 percentage points), or eliminate private health insurance companies (-21 percentage points).

 

 

[Whispering 18,865]

Some other statistics that might be important:

New polls of likely general election voters in the Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin reveal that voters are deeply skeptical about Medicare for All and that the policy will not help Democrats beat Donald Trump in these top 2020 battleground states.

By margins of 19-points in Pennsylvania, 16-points in Michigan, and 17-points in Wisconsin, Democrats and persuadable voters would rather the Democratic nominee run on building off the ACA over Medicare for All.

That might end up being important in the general...if we have a fair election with Trump now. We might end up with so much Russian interference, nothing will matter anyway.