The two polls showed that Americans’ overall favorability for a national Medicare-for-all plan declined from 56% in April to 51% in July. That drop came from Democratic respondents, whose support went from 80% to 72%, and from Republicans, whose support declined from 27% to 15%. Overall favorability increased from 52% to 55% among independents, Kaiser reported in its latest Health Tracking Poll.
“The small dip in Medicare-for-all support may reflect recent debate over the role of private insurance, including employer-sponsored coverage, which would largely disappear under the leading Medicare-for-all plans but would continue under a public option,” Kaiser said in a statement accompanying the report.
When given a choice, 55% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents (Republicans were not asked) would rather build on the existing Affordable Care Act, compared with 39% who want to replace it with Medicare-for-all, the Kaiser investigators said.
Support is currently greater for a public option that would give all residents the ability to choose a government-sponsored insurance plan. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said that they favor such a proposal, with support at 85% for Democrats, 68% for independents, and 36% for Republicans, the report’s authors said.
The two polls were conducted among 1,196 adults during July 18-23, 2019, and 1,203 adults during April 11-16, 2019. The margin of sampling error for both polls was plus or minus 3 percentage points.