Only 13 percent of Americans would back Medicare for All if it eliminated private health insurance, according to a poll released on Thursday.
The Hill-HarrisX poll released on Thursday found that only 13 percent of Americans would prefer a Medicare for All government-run healthcare system if it meant eliminating private health insurance.
Thirty-two percent of Americans said that they would back a single-payer healthcare system if it would allow Americans to purchase private, supplemental insurance.
Twenty-six percent of voters said that they would back a healthcare system that would allow for a government-run “public option” alongside private health insurance.
Fifteen percent of Americans said that they wanted the government separated from health care, whereas 14 percent said that they want to keep the current healthcare system intact.
Mohamed Younis, editor-in-chief of Gallup polling, told the Hill on Wednesday.
The poll may serve as a warning for some 2020 presidential candidates who have backed a Medicare for All-style proposal, even though some have faced backlash over their call to eliminate private health insurance.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) originally called for eliminating private health insurance through her Medicare for All proposal and then walked backed those remarks less than one day after she made her radical proposal.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also dodged questions over whether his Medicare for All proposal would eliminate private health insurance.
However, both Harris and Booker co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) Medicare for All bill, S. 1804, which would eliminate private health insurance.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also co-sponsored Sanders’ bill to eliminate private health insurance with Medicare for All.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 56 percent of Americans favor Medicare for All, but Americans’ favorability of the socialized medicine proposal drops to 37 percent when they hear that it would eliminate private health insurance.
Tricia Neuman, director of Kaiser’s program for Medicare policy, said, “Most people are satisfied with the health insurance until they have a problem. The public favors these proposals that would broaden choice, but also want to be sure they don’t lose something that they value.”