A Morning Consult/Politico tracking poll conducted at the end of March finds that support for Medicare for All has increased significantly since the novel coronavirus pandemic swept through the US. A solid majority of Americans (55 percent) now support a government-administered health care system. Americans are seeing first-hand that no one is invulnerable to disease, and when people get sick, our broken healthcare system does not deliver what we need.
Net support for Medicare for All is now at 20 points, up nine points since February. Net support takes those opposed to Medicare for All, 35 percent of Americans and deducts it from those in favor, 55 percent.
Three in four Democrats support a government-administered single-payer health plan that guarantees people cradle to grave health care coverage for treatment from whatever doctors they want anywhere in the US. And, Medicare for All does away with virtually all out-of-pocket health care costs, including deductibles and copays. More than half of Independents (52 percent) support the plan. And, nearly one in three Republicans (31 percent) support it.
The biggest boost to Medicare for All came from Americans with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, voters between the ages of 45 and 54 and black voters. About 10 percent more people in each of these demographic groups support Medicare for All.
Policymakers who support Medicare for All might now be able to move even more people in these demographic groups to support Medicare for All. Many still do not understand how Medicare for All would work. They also do not appreciate that while their taxes would go up to pay for their health insurance, their overall health care costs would come down significantly.
Vice-President Biden has yet to call for Medicare for All though he has just called for expanding Medicare to people 60 and older. He mistakenly believes that we don’t need universal health care to effectively contain the spread of a global pandemic. He says that it would “not solve” the coronavirus crisis. But, that’s not the point. To be sure, you need strong leadership and a solid public health infrastructure as well as guaranteed health insurance for everyone to contain a pandemic. But, Medicare for All is a necessary if not sufficient prerequisite.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Medicare for all would help us combat Covid-19
- What are the major differences between Medicare for all and a public option?
- Medicare for all would save $600 billion a year in administrative costs
- Berwick: Medicare for All lowers costs and reduces confusion and paperwork
- How older adults can best protect themselves from the coronavirus
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