Poll: Most Americans want to replace Obamacare with single-payer — including many Republicans

[think]

Poll: Most Americans want to replace Obamacare with single-payer — including many Republicans

By Philip Bump - May 16 2016

The politics of Obamacare aren't all that complicated. Republicans have called for the Affordable Care Act to be "repealed and replaced" for years, with only sporadic attempts to articulate what the replacement would be. On the Democratic side, the question that's emerged over the course of the primary is whether or not the program should be expanded and improved (Hillary Clinton's argument) or if we should push for a complete overhaul, moving toward a "single-payer" system like Medicare (Bernie Sanders's argument).

In a round of polling conducted this month, Gallup figured out which of those ideas was the most popular. And the result? It's sort of a three-way tie.

Well over half of Americans want to replace Obamacare with a single-payer system. That figure, amazingly, includes 41 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents — even though the wording of the question specifies that the program would be "federally funded." (Mind you, more than half of Republicans oppose the idea.)

The high number of Republicans approving of the idea may be because Republicans are so hostile to the Affordable Care Act. Gallup's polling has consistently shown that Republicans hold strongly negative views of the program. Replacing the ACA with anything probably holds some appeal.....


Read more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/16/most-americans-want-to-replace-obamacare-with-a-single-payer-system-including-a-lot-of-republicans/

[Ferd Berfel]

1. Not CLinton

she like it just the way it is.

[Hoyt]

2. She realizes the political realities and that a Public Option will get us

there faster.

[Ferd Berfel]

3. She's been bought and paid for by these creatures

I wouldn't assume she gives a rats ass at all.

[Hoyt]

4. Apparently, you have been duped.

[Ferd Berfel]

6. apparently you are delusional

[think]

10. Apparently Hillary Clinton is the only politician who can't be bought so the millions in speaking

fees from corporations and associations who spend billions more lobbying the federal govt. don't mean anything.

Hillary won't be influenced in anyway....

[Ferd Berfel]

11. She is a rock of integrity

[think]

5. She took direct income from an association that is actively fighting single payer in Colorado

It's just too obvious sometimes...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511817230

[yurbud]

8. who would pay her to do that?

[yurbud]

9. even if she promised that, it would be declared a pony 5 sec after election

[basselope]

14. We had a chance of a public option.

Obama squandered it.

Clinton doesn't want a REAL public option.. she just wants to lower the age for medicare a bit and allow people to buy into it at that age.

[brooklynite]

21. Tell us...what WAS the chance of a Public Option?

Which majority of House and Senate members were prepared to vote for it?

[basselope]

22. Your premise is false.

The HOUSE passed a public option. The Senate did not, because even though the dems had a super majority, there were 6 blue dogs who refused to go with it.

HOWEVER, we COULD have gotten it passed via reconciliation when we only needed 50 votes.

They had the votes: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/83641-sanders-senate-has-the-votes-to-pass-public-option-via-reconciliation

However, for some reason (later revealed by the New York Times to likely be a back room deal with private hospitals) the White House removed the public option from its plan and Reid never tried the reconciliation vote.

So the public option died at the hands of Obama.

And the democrats lost the 2010 mid terms because of it.

[Jim Lane]

17. The actual polling data give a different view of "the political realities"

You're apparently responding based only on the approved knee-jerk conservaDem talking point. As to single payer, or indeed any other remotely progressive step, the Clinton wing of the party intones that it's too radical to attract widespread support.

The linked article, based on interviewing hundreds of actual voters rather than a handful of establishment commentators, belies that assertion.

A President of the United States who pushed for single payer would find a strong core of existing support, and could augment it by using the bully pulpit.

[Hoyt]

19. No, I'm responding on the GOPer Congress and that 40+% of people

are still opposed, and likely more will be if their taxes go up (because many are too stupid to get taxes would replace premiums). If you don't believe me, because it's a "knee jerk" reaction or some such BS, read up on how quickly Vermont Democrats ran from single payer when they calculated how much taxes would have to be increased.

With public option, you don't have to cram it down throat of the 40+% who are opposed. They can watch others gravitate to public option. If it works as good as we think, within a few years, most people will be on public plan.

But go ahead and demand nothing but single payer. You'll end up with a cruddy voucher system that you can whine about for the rest of your life.

[Jim Lane]

20. "What do we want?" "Incremental change!" "When do we want it?" "In due time!" Great rallying cry.

You write, "But go ahead and demand nothing but single payer." Oh, yeah, that's definitely the progressives' position. That's why Bernie Sanders, our unicorn-chaser-in-chief, after noting that the ACA wasn't perfect, voted against it.

...except, of course, that he voted for it. So did all the other progressives in Congress.

As to the Republicans in Congress, they certainly won't approve single-payer, but they just as certainly won't approve a public option. (It's no advantage to Clinton to say that the plans of hers that will die in Congress will be more "sensible" than better plans that would die in Congress.)

What is to be done? You ignore the suggestion I made: The President could use the power and prestige of that office to push for a major change in how we finance health care. There's good reason to think that many voters would respond. Some Republican obstructionists would get voted out of office, while others would discover in themselves a new flexibility (arising from their fear of being voted out of office).

Which change should the President advocate? The polls indicate that single payer, even though it's a more radical change, might well have a better chance of attracting support. A further benefit is that a push for single payer might lead to enactment of the public option as a compromise. If the initial push is instead for just the public option, then any compromise will be even more watered down.

We wouldn't necessarily get something enacted quickly. The President could, however, start the process. Harry Truman urged a greater federal role in health care and was then sitting next to Johnson when LBJ signed Medicare into law. If Bill Clinton had pushed hard for single payer, maybe Obama could have signed it into law.

As JFK said in a different context, "Let us begin."

[Hoyt]

23. If Obama had stood firm for single payer or even public option, we'd be sitting here with nothing

and looking at 15 years before anyone would touch health care again.

Now all we need is a few paragraphs or so to amend ACA to expand Medicare. I think that is doable. Single Payer won't even get the look that Vermont Democrats gave it before running for the hills.

[Jim Lane]

24. Can you do nothing but answer straw men?

I didn't say that if Obama had stood firm for single payer we would've gotten it. I said that if Bill Clinton had pushed for it, it might have become politically feasible by the time of Obama's presidency.

By contrast, if elected officials never try for anything that isn't already universally accepted, then they will never move public opinion. In addition, they'll never provide a motivation for more people to turn out and vote in the midterms, a turnout that would help get rid of some of the obstructionists.

[Arazi]

7. "Never, ever, ever, ever!!"

[LiberalElite]

36. Plus, "it's too hard!!!"

Said the Queen of No We Can't.

[stillwaiting]

12. It has been this way awhile now.

It will be part of HRC's job to try and make this not the reality.

And, I hope she fails in that endeavor.

The above is assuming she becomes President. We will see what happens there...

[trudyco]

13. That surprised me.

I'd rather have a public option:

1) Get rid of employer based health care plans, so the gig economy and un/part time employed are not penalized.
2) Have a minimum set of standard plans that all groups must offer so people can compare plans apples to apples
3) Require Health care companies to have quotas of different types of insured so old and sick can't be shoved out of a health company's plan by elimination or overpricing. Pricing can not be discriminatory. No preexisting conditions.
4) Offer the Federal Employee health care plan as a public option to compete with private options. This would be with a premium, possibly subsidized if the customer can't afford the premiums. I believe this insurance can negotiate medicine prices.
5) There is no penalty for switching plans.

If the private plans are economical because private can always do better than government then they will do fine.
If government screws up and is a nightmare well then we still have the private option.
Let's see who does the better job.

As Bernie said when describing what his idea of socialism was, "It's about options"

[Recursion]

18. Not me. Single payer polls great if taxes aren't mentioned

America loves gocernment services but hates paying for them more than they love receiving them.

[EndElectoral]

16. kick

[JEB]

25. I will not support the continued use of leeches.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027881003

[Trust Buster]

26. Single payer is a long way off. Not politically feasible currently.

[think]

27. America is the only one of the 25 wealthiest nations that doesn't provide universal health care

And Hillary took big money from the very groups that are fighting against single payer in Colorado.

So ya if Hillary is elected we sure won't get single payer.

It's sad to see all you Hillary supporters giving up without a fight. Pitiful even....

[Trust Buster]

28. It's still not politically feasible in the foreseeable future and that has nothing to do with

Hillary. We should be grateful for the ACA.

[think]

29. America is the only one of the 25 wealthiest nations that doesn't provide universal health care

When the American people have a leader that makes sure this is understood the people won't stand for it.

Hillary took the money and it DOES matter. You're making excuses for her selling out to big health care.

America deserves to have universal healthcare just like the other wealthy countries.

So spare me the we should be grateful crap. America deserves better and you know it.

Obama took millions in donations from the health care industry as well when he ran. He refused to even let a discussion of single payer be allowed in the ACA discussion.

Here's a video for you settlers. Enjoy!:

[Trust Buster]

32. Your logic is nonsense. The ACA barely passed. The political power to pass universal healthcare

does not exist. You can keep fooling yourself if you like but that will not change the political reality. There will be no universal healthcare for a decade at least. Building on the ACA is the practical and realistic approach.

[think]

34. Keep trying make it seem acceptable that Hillary lined her pockets with millions from

Those fighting universal healthcare

Even worse you perpetuate the myth that America and Democrats are too weak to overcome the GOP and achieve great things.

When America stands as the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare and you and your candidate can only say America just can't do it that's just pathetic.

You purposely trying to sabotage the path to universal healthcare and you should be ashamed of yourself for doing so.

[Trust Buster]

35. Keep trying to make this all about Hillary for political expediency. President Obama himself stated

that the political power does not exist in Congress to pass universal healthcare. We would be fortunate to keep the Republicans from repealing the ACA. You do not understand the current political reality.

[think]

38. Did Hillary take millions in income from those fighting universal healthcare or not?

We're not even talking about donations. This is direct income from companies and associations who have a vested interest in making sure America does not get universal healthcare.

That's the reality. The candidate you support worked for and profited heavily from companies that are concerned about their profits rather than the basic needs and rights of Americans.

Hillary Clinton’s Single-Payer Pivot Greased By Millions in Industry Speech Fees

Zaid Jilani
Jan. 13 2016, 10:39 a.m.

Hillary Clinton’s sudden attack on Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care plan is a dramatic break with Democratic Party doctrine that the problem with single-payer is that it is politically implausible — not that it is a bad idea.

Single-payer, the Canadian-style system in which the government pays for universal health care, takes the health insurance industry out of the picture, saving huge amounts of money. But the health insurance industry has become so rich and powerful that it would never let it happen.

That was certainly Clinton’s position back in the early 1990s, when she was developing her doomed universal coverage proposal for her husband, Bill.

But in the ensuing years, both Clintons have taken millions of dollars in speaking fees from the health care industry. According to public disclosures, Hillary Clinton alone, from 2013 to 2015, made $2,847,000 from 13 paid speeches to the industry.

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/13/hillary-clinton-single-payer/

[onecaliberal]

30. It only matters what the oligarchs want and they control everything.

[tularetom]

31. Wanna tell me how Obamacare can be "expanded and improved"?

In theory it can't be expanded because everybody is already required to participate.

Improved? Sure, cut the insurance companies out of the picture. But somehow, I doubt that that's what Clinton intends to do.

[Scuba]

33. Medicare for All, including dental, optical, hearing aids and mental health services.

And yes, we can afford it. Hell, we already pay for it.

[vintx]

37. This.