‘Are you listening?’
That was the question posed by healthcare justice advocates to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—and potential Democratic presidential candidates as well—after another new poll showed overwhelming support for Medicare for All by Democratic Party voters.
“They may have the money. But we have the people.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)According to the Politico/Harvard poll (pdf), released Monday, a full 84 percent of Democrats says “providing health insurance coverage for everyone through a taxpayer-funded national plan like MedicareForAll” should “be an extremely important priority” for the party. Politico reports:
Click Here: gold coast suns 2019 guernsey
The poll involved a series of questions that made distinctions between a Medicare for All system that covered everyone, a possible “buy-in” option for people under 65, and a more vague “public option” that could be purchased. “The poll showed most people weren’t aware of a Medicare buy-in or public option,” Politico noted, “but were broadly supportive of the ideas when informed about them.”
While numerous polls over the last two years have shown increasingly high levels for a single-payer approach or Medicare For All solution to the nation’s healthcare crisis, many Democratic Party leaders have clung to their reluctance of the idea.
Last week, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia who says he is contemplating a run for president, warned the party away from bold solutions like Medicare for All, saying voters are not ready for policies that he characterized, without evidence, of being “unrealistic.”
But those pushing for Medicare for All say the political winds are at their back as the polling continues to suggest the American people are ready to join the rest of the world’s developed nations by creating a healthcare system that includes everybody and leaves nobody out.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT