KFF Health Tracking Poll – September 2019: Health Care Policy In Congress And On The Campaign Trail | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

This month’s poll probes Democrats’ views about the general approaches to expanding health coverage and lowering costs put forward by the candidates; the public’s health care prio…

Source: KFF Health Tracking Poll – September 2019: Health Care Policy In Congress And On The Campaign Trail | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

 Comment by Don McCanne

According to this new poll, Democrats support Medicare-for-all ("a national health plan"), Independents are split, and Republicans are opposed. Also, Democrats and Independents both support a public option ("a government-administered health plan"), and Republicans are split. However, the public is confused as to whether Medicare-for-all and a public option are similar or different, and half have not heard much about Medicare-for-all and even more have not heard much about a public option.

It seems as if individuals do have an opinion on Medicare-for-all and on a public option even though many are confused as to what they are. The fact that the pollsters referred to one as "a national health plan" and the other as "a government-administered health plan" likely leaves many of those polled with little understanding of the refinements distinguishing the two models.

 Features that people might be interested in include the following:

 Everyone is automatically covered for life

 Affordability is assured through equitable taxes based on ability to pay

 Financial barriers such as high deductibles are eliminated

 Choices of physicians and hospitals are assured through elimination of insurer networks

 Hundreds of billions of dollars in administrative waste is recovered

Of course, these are features of the single payer model of Medicare for all and none would apply by merely adding a public option to our fragmented financing system of a multitude of public and private insurance programs.

When will the pollsters finally ask the following questions?

Should everyone be covered or just some of us?

Should insurance be automatic forever or should it depend on life circumstances?

Should payments into the system be made affordable based on income, or should many be left out because they can't afford the premiums?

Should high deductibles and surprise medical bills be used to deprive individuals of health care that they should have?

Should patients have choices of their physicians and hospitals or shall we continue to allow private insurers to restrict choices to their networks?

Should we continue to tolerate wasting about half a trillion dollars in administrative excesses, or should we redirect those funds that so that we can pay for care for those currently uninsured or underinsured?

In other words, do we want a health care system that we can afford that takes care of all of us, or do we want to merely add a public option and a couple of tweaks to ACA that leaves our overpriced, highly dysfunctional system in place? People really need to understand the differences between Medicare-for-all (single payer version) and a public option. Let's see that they do.