Biden likes what he sees in health care polling

[TexasTowelie]

Joe Biden was pleased to find himself atop another poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers last week.

-snip-

The poll also delved into policy, and one question asked what kind of health care proposal Iowa Democrats prefer.

The top answer, with 56 percent, was a system that allows people to buy into Medicare — a so-called public option. Biden is one of several candidates in the field who has proposed a public option.

Just 21 percent said they prefer a Medicare-for-all system that would place every American on a government-run health care program. Such a proposal has been pitched by candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/joe-biden-polling-front-runner-health-care-policy-20190811
(Cedar Rapids Gazette)

[Meadowoak]

1. We need a single payer system. Unfortunately, most people have never even heard the term.

[highplainsdem]

2. Your preferred candidate, Mayor Pete, favors a public option.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pete-buttigieg-unveils-medicare-want-213454468.html

[Meadowoak]

3. I like Bernie's healthcare plan, and Mayor Pete on everything else.

But the only thing that really matters at this point, is beating Trump. So I will solidly back whoever the nominee is.

[George II]

4. People have been talking about "single payer" since at least 2009 when the ACA was being written.

[thesquanderer]

5. There used to be a lot of talk about single payer, and MFA is a single payer plan...

...I think what single payer advocates finally realized is that people don't understand what "single payer" means, but people like "medicare." So "medicare for all" became a way to promote "single payer" without having to explain what SP means or worry about people being scared about something "unfamiliar." They're already comfortable with and not scared of Medicare.

[George II]

7. "Medicare for All" misuses the term "Medicare" to attract more attention....

"Medicare for All" (what little definition and details that we've seen so far) is as close to the current existing Medicare as a bicycle is to a Harley.

[thesquanderer]

8. I agree that the differences are likely to be significant.

But I don't think they're using the term to attract attention. I'd say they're using it as a way to simply communicate--and also make people comfortable with--the idea of some universal version of a government run, single payer system, which at its heart, is arguably the defining feature of Medicare.

[ananda]

6. Though I prefer single payer ...

... I will happily vote for Biden or any other Dem
but Gillibrand.

[comradebillyboy]

9. Well the MFA proposals are getting some critical scrutiny now

and lots of people don't like what they see.

[peggysue2]

10. Medicare for All is under the microscope now and . . .

generalities on the plan simply do not wash. Medicare as a brand is very popular but Medicare for All is not Medicare and it needs to be funded either at the front end through massive taxation or at the point of service, deductibles and co-pays. I read an interesting paper a few days ago indicating that the European models are beginning to consider point of service fees. Because there comes a time when taxation simply becomes too onerous due to aging populations, something that's happening throughout the world.

The goal for all of our candidates is universal coverage. How we get there and how quickly is the open-ended question. Offering a public option gives us time to ease into a new system without scaring the bejesus out of people and also an opportunity to address the funding and service problems along the way, as well as corralling the out of whack costs of medical services and pharmaceuticals. The main lesson that Shumlin and his team learned with the failed implementation of GreenMountain Care in Vermont was that those escalating costs had to be reduced before a single-payer plan was doable.

So, I'm not surprised that the public option is gaining steam and the public's approval.

[Gothmog]

11. Medicare for all polls badly

Link to tweet

THE MAIN TAKEAWAYS are that socialism, broadly speaking, is unpopular, but Republicans have work to do if they want to tarnish some key Democratic proposals. Once voters hear about the agenda as framed by Republicans, 61% say it is socialist. Calling Democrats’ policies “socialist” causes a 10-point drop in their popularity.

-- FOR EXAMPLE: Take ‘MEDICARE FOR ALL.’ When asked about supporting Medicare for All, and hearing it described as “guaranteed health care coverage regardless of … income, and every American’s health insurance would come from a single government-run plan,” 41% favor it, 55% oppose and 4% are unsure. When Republicans start describing it as causing “doctor shortages, longer wait times for urgent care and delays in access to the latest drugs for cancer and other serious diseases,” the numbers move to 34% favor and 60% oppose.

-- THE ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ is actually above water when described as a plan that “would work to address climate change and income inequality, and transition the United States from an economy built on fossil fuels to one driven by clean energy.” 48% favor, 46% oppose and 7% are unsure.

IT SINKS when Republicans start describing it as potentially costing “93 trillion dollars” and hiking energy bills by $3,000. It goes then to 32% support and 61% oppose. Polling memo … Poll deck

[Cha]

13. As well it should..

Thank you, Goth!

[Gothmog]

12. Washington Post-Democrats back off once-fervent embrace of Medicare-for-all

Link to tweet

But in recent months, amid polling that shows concern among voters about ending private insurance, several of the Democratic hopefuls have shifted their positions or their tone, moderating full-throated endorsement of Medicare-for-all and adopting ideas for allowing private insurance in some form.

“What I think has happened in the Democratic primary is people recognize that some of the concerns about single-payer are not coming from special interests but the public,” said Neera Tanden, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton and now president of the Center for American Progress. (A government-run health system is sometimes called a single-payer system.)....

Now some Democrats warn of the perils for their party in taking a position that, to important groups of voters, could seem just as disruptive as the GOP’s push to kill the ACA.

“There is nothing more personal to people than their health care,” said Kathleen Sebelius, who consulted on Harris’s plan and served as health and human services secretary in the Obama administration. “Anything that calls for the vast majority of Americans to lose what they have — that’s a very dangerous place to start a conversation.”....

Other surveys have found less support. About 8 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in a Pew poll in July said the federal government has a responsibility to ensure health coverage, but less than half said it should be through a single government plan.

And in a July poll of Iowa voters by CBS News/YouGov, two-thirds of Democrats said they preferred a government health program that competed with private insurance, compared with 34 percent who favored one that replaced private insurance entirely.

[Cha]

14. Gracias for this, TexasT!