Proposals to eliminate private health insurance in favor of a single payer version of “Medicare for All” may be losing ground on the campaign trail in Iowa, home of the first-in-the nation Democratic caucuses.
A new Monmouth University poll shows a majority of likely Iowa Democratic “caucusgoers want a public option rather than a ‘Medicare for All’ type” of healthcare coverage that would eliminate private insurance.
“A majority (56%) of likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers say they would prefer to allow people to opt into Medicare, while just 21% say they want a Medicare for All type of system with no private insurance,” the poll from the Monmouth University Polling Institute said.
But Iowa Democrats do want to see more choices alongside the Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare coverage to more than 20 million Americans by selling subsidized individual policies on public exchanges and by expanding Medicaid for poor Americans in states that opted to take advantage of federal dollars.
The poll could be seen as a slight blow to Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who are big backers of a version of Medicare for All that would uproot the private insurance system. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden and several other candidates running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020 favor adding a public option to coverage available under the ACA.
It makes sense a public option would go over well in Iowa where the state had a rocky start with the availability of individual private coverage known as Obamacare on the government-run exchanges. Though there are more insurance choices this year under the ACA in Iowa and across the country, there was a period when the state’s largest insurer didn’t participate. Politico’s Paul Demko wrote a magazine piece in 2017 called “How Iowa Became An Obamacare Horror Story,” documenting how insurers fled the market and one that stayed raised rates dramatically.
The poll of those likely to go to the caucus overwhelmingly want more choices and change with just 4% saying they “want to leave the current system basically as it is now,” the poll said.
But the Monmouth Poll also indicates there could be confusion on the campaign trail about just how to expand coverage and who has the best ideas because Warren, a single payer supporter, was generally surging as a candidate and has been winning more support in Iowa.
“When asked which candidates for president come closest to their own views on health care,” Biden earned 28% support, followed by Warren at 20% and Sanders at 20%, the Monmouth poll said.
Among voters who said they prefer a “public option 34% say Biden comes close to their position on health care.” Biden is followed by Warren at 18%, Sen. Kamala Harris of California at 13% and South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 11%.
The poll was the latest this week showing Americans want more choices and more coverage but are open to different ways of getting there. A Business Insider poll showed 59% who receive health insurance through their employer “would be fine switching to a government insurance plan under ‘Medicare for All’ — as long as it meant no change in coverage.”
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