The Hill/HarrisX Poll: Just 13 Percent Favor ‘Single-Payer’ Health Care

A poll from The Hill/HarrisX finds that just “13 percent of respondents said they would prefer a health care system that covers all citizens and doesn’t allow for private plans, an approach that is sometimes referred to as ‘single-payer.’

We know that Americans value choice and control in their health care decisions.  Perhaps that sheds some light on why – as The Hill notes – “some Democratic White House hopefuls have begun to argue that [U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.)] Medicare for all plan is not feasible.”  Sanders’ Medicare for All plan “would largely eliminate private coverage and replace it with government coverage for everyone,” they report.

Public opinion research shows that this is not a popular idea.  For example, a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that support for Medicare for All plummets when respondents are informed it would eliminate the choice and control they enjoy through employer-provided and other private coverage.

As Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell writes, “Most adults have private insurance, and most of them like it.  They’re nervous about losing it.”

Click here to read more on the Hill/HarrisX poll.