Support for 'Medicare-for-all' fluctuates with details

WASHINGTON --Americans like the idea of "Medicare-for-all," but support flips to disapproval if it would result in higher taxes or longer waits for care.

That's a key insight from a national poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. It comes as Democratic presidential hopefuls embrace the idea of a government-run health care system.

The poll found Americans initially support "Medicare-for-all," 56 percent to 42 percent.

Support increased when people were told "Medicare-for-all" would guarantee health insurance as a right (71 percent) and eliminate premiums and reduce out-of-pocket costs (67 percent).

But if they were told a government-run system could lead to delays in getting care or higher taxes, support plunged to 26 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

Support fell to 32 percent if it would threaten the current Medicare program.

"The issue that will really be fundamental would be the tax issue," said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who reviewed the poll. He pointed out that state single-payer efforts in Vermont and Colorado failed because of concerns about the tax increases needed to put them in place.

There doesn't seem to be much disagreement a single-payer system would require tax increases, since the government would take over premiums now paid by employers and individuals as it replaces the private health insurance industry. The question is how much.

Several independent studies have estimated government spending on health care would increase dramatically, in the range of about $25 trillion to $35 trillion or more over a 10-year period. But a recent estimate from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst suggested it could be much lower. With significant cost savings, the government would need to raise about $1.1 trillion from new revenue sources in the first year of the new program.