Medicare-for-all is unpopular with voters in these key states
Almost two-thirds of voters in key swing states think Medicare-for-all is a bad idea
A majority of voters in states that could determine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election believe Medicare-for-all is a bad idea, according to a new survey.
In key swing states — which include Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota, among others — 62 percent of voters said a national health plan in which all Americans receive their health coverage through a single-payer system was not a good idea, according to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Cook Political Report.
The poll comes amid a fracture between the candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have endorsed Medicare-for-all, proposing sweeping, multi-trillion-dollar plans, while more moderate candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg favor expanding coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.
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Nationwide, Medicare-for-all is popular among Democratic voters, according to the study, with 62 percent of respondents saying they believe it’s a “good idea.”
In a piece penned for Axios last week, Kaiser Family Foundation CEO Drew Altman argued that support for Medicare-for-all is “headed in the wrong direction.” In 2000, 40 percent of voters favored a single-payer system. That peaked at 59 percent in March 2018, but slipped back to 51 percent by October of this year.
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Sanders, I-Vt., and Warren, D-Mass., have both weathered criticism from Democrats and Republicans about how they’ll pay for the expansive, and expensive, plans.
FILE - In this April 4, 2018, file photo, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., responds to a question during a town hall meeting in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Over the summer, Sanders acknowledged that he would raise taxes on the middle-class in order to pay for his single-payer system, but insisted that most Americans would see their overall costs fall because they would no longer be on the hook for deductibles, copays or premiums. A family currently paying $20,000 for private insurance would see that obligation eliminated, he said, though taxes could increase by $10,000.
“Is that a good deal? I think it’s a pretty good deal,” he said at the time.
Warren, meanwhile, went to painstaking lengths to avoid a middle-class tax hike, instead introducing a slew of new taxes including ones on the wealthy and Wall Street.