IN SUMMARY: The Democrats control the Senate now,. A poll last April shows that 69 percent of registered voters support Medicare for All, a plan that would create a national health insurance plan available for all Americans. (The poll was conducted by the Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill and the market research company HarrisX). But are we asking the right questions in these polls?
Medicare for all
SUMMARY: President Obama said “Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality and the fact that voters — including Democratic voters and certainly persuadable independents or even moderate Republicans — are not driven by the same views that are reflected on certain, you know, left-leaning Twitter feeds or the activist wing of our party.” He added that “the average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”
KEY THOUGHT: While offering all U.S. citizens free health care using a single-payer system sounds attractive as a political talking point, actually implementing Medicare for All would require a complex restructuring of a multi-trillion dollar industry and cost trillions of dollars. Rather than make promises that don’t make sense politicians should strengthen the ACA and fix its shortfalls.