Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont has finally introduced his “Medicare for all” bill that finally allows the government to seize control of the health care system and fix it once and for all. Politico notes that liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris are among the 15 cosponsors of the bill, but that Democrats who are vulnerable in 2018 and the congressional leadership are steering clear. Jim Geraghty notes that public support for Single Payer mostly depends on how the polling question is asked.
Why are Sanders and company doing this?
The left has wanted a Canadian style government run healthcare system for decades.
Sanders and his allies believe that the time has come to make that dream take form. Frustrated by Obamacare, many Americans are finding the concept of single payer very attractive. The Sanders wing of the Democratic Party believes that government run health services are not only the key to winning back the House and Senate in 2018 but the presidency as well. Mainstream Democrats are not so sure, noting the terrible losses the party has incurred because of Obamacare. However, it looks like that the Sanders wing is going to insist on making the matter a litmus test.
How much to Americans support single payer?
As Jim Geraghty points out, supporters of single payer have been puffed up by a Kaiser Poll that concludes that 55 percent of Americans support its concept.
And, why not? For most people who don’t pay much attention to politics, having someone else pay for health care (the “rich” of course) looks pretty attractive, considering the cost of insurance premiums these days.
However, as the cliché goes, the devil is in the details. When told that single payer means that the government will be in charge of healthcare, support for the idea collapses and opposition spikes to 61 percent.
When told that the system requires that they must pay higher taxes, opposition rises to 60 percent.
The problem that Sanders and his ilk have in trying to sell government healthcare is that most Americans are pretty happy with their insurance. If you tell them they can’t keep their plan or their doctors, they tend to get irate.
If you also say that Medicare for all is going to cost as much as $32 trillion over ten years, irate mushrooms into full bore rage.
Remember, Americans have seen this movie before, Obamacare was going to fix everything and make health care cheaper and more accessible. It had quite the opposite effect. Sanders has got to find a way to convince people that this time they are telling the truth, even if they are not.
