After the media’s decades advancing of “Medicare for All,” which is just an euphemism for socialized medicine, the position has become a more commonly accepted view of Democratic candidates. Now over 100 House Democrats have signed on to a bill to make such happen.
Reason Magazine noted on the subject, “Yet Medicare for All’s rise has coincided with a dilution of the phrase’s meaning. To some, it still means strict single-payer, with all of the costs and disruption that entails; to others, it merely means some expansion of government involvement in health care, perhaps using today’s Medicare program for seniors as a foundation.
“The fuzziness of the label’s meaning has clearly helped aid its rise: Polls consistently show that Medicare for All is popular only until people are told what it would entail in its single-payer form—higher taxes and a massive increase in government spending, the end of Medicare as we know it today, and the swift elimination of current private health insurance, which covers nearly 180 million Americans. Even simply calling the idea of a government-run health plan “single-payer” significantly reduces public support.
“This reality of public opinion explains, for example, why Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Ca.) softened her position on single-payer after saying she would eliminate private health insurance, and why Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has taken to describing it as “aspirational.” Medicare for All has found success as an ambiguous slogan, but not as a specific policy, because the specific policy it is most associated with—government-run single-payer health insurance—is broadly unpopular.”
“Congress can’t even keep its doors open, now Democrats want to put Washington in absolute control of your personal health care?
“When Americans see Democrats’ true, frightening government takeover of health care – banning good health care plans at work, jeopardizing Medicare for seniors, and doubling everyone’s taxes – voters will reject it.
“Republicans stand committed to working together to improve the broken status quo and lower health care costs for families and small businesses. But centralizing control in D.C. and continuing to limit access and choice for patients is an awfully bad starting point for Democrats.”
It is interesting because this is the exact type of bills that led to the Republican revolts in the ballot boxes in 2010 and 2016. It is the exact type of battle that Republicans feel confident they can win.
