Americans Say They Want Fundamental Change To The Healthcare System-- But Do They Really?

Obamacare Repeal by Nancy Ohanian

If you don't want any fundamental changes to the healthcare system, you have a choice of candidates to choose from. You can stick with Trump and pray he keeps failing to make it much worse. Or you can choose one of the timid corporate Democrats running on timid corporate platforms... Status Quo Joe, being the most prominent and the most inert, but don't forget the two big wet-finger-to-the-wind contenders, Mayo Pete and Kamala Harris. No sense in bringing up the also rans at this point. Only the DNC and TV ad selling networks pretend to take them seriously as presidential candidates. Only Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, the former more so than the latter, are running on absolute fundamental change to the American healthcare system.

What do the voters think? A more appropriate question might be do the voters think? But a just-released SSRS poll for CBS News assumes voters do think about and, presumably, react to, policy questions. Although the results are not easy to interpret, CBS reported that "Most Americans think the nation's health care system needs fundamental changes or to be completely rebuilt, and costs are what concern them most. More than four in 10 are dissatisfied with their health care costs and say affording basic medical care is a hardship. Many have had problems paying medical bills and more than a third say they have gone without medical treatment because of the costs. Overall views of the U.S. health care system have been largely consistent for many years: most want fundamental changes or a completely rebuilt system."

OK, so why are so many voters backing the two worst candidates on fundamentally changing healthcare, Trump and Biden? Most voters, alas, are way too stupid and impervious to easily available facts to understand the ironclad relationship between keeping costs down and ensuring everyone has health care coverage. The voters see that as a choice, rather than as a symbiotic relationship. You can't have one without the other (like love and marriage-- and a horse and carriage).

And now for what really makes no sense"

This may be because Americans are largely satisfied with the quality of their own health care. Seventy-nine percent say they are satisfied, including 42% who say they are very satisfied. Americans have shown a high level of satisfaction with the quality of their health care for a number of years.

But Americans have greater reservations about their health care costs. Just over half of Americans say they are satisfied.

And many-- more than four in ten-- find affording basic medical care a hardship. Lower-income Americans are particularly likely to feel this way:  More than half of those earning less than $50,000 a year describe the affordability of basic medical care for their family as a hardship.

...Generally, most Americans with health insurance say they like the coverage they have.  Nonetheless, some have experienced difficulties with their insurance. Fifty-five percent of Americans with health insurance report receiving medical bills or paperwork that was confusing and almost half have received a medical bill in which their plan paid less than expected. About a third each have had trouble getting a doctor's appointment in a timely manner or have had their plan not cover a particular doctor they wanted to see.

Different types of insurance seem to have different problems. Sixty percent of Americans with private insurance (and 51% of those on Medicare) report confusing paperwork. Half of those with private insurance say they have experienced their plan paying less than they expected for a medical bill. Fewer Americans on Medicaid or those who get their insurance through a public exchange have experienced these problems, though 54% say they have wanted to see a particular doctor only to find that the doctor was not covered by their plan.  

Yesterday, Bernie reminded his supporters that "our opponents, whether it is the Republican establishment, Democratic establishment, Wall Street, insurance companies, drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex-- the whole damn 1%-- they're not going to give up their wealth and their power without a fight. The question that we have to answer together is this: are we prepared to stand up to them and transform our country? ... Are you willing to fight to ensure that every American has health care as a human right, even if you have good health care? ... Are you willing to fight for a future for generations of people who have not yet even been born, but are entitled to live on a planet that is habitable? Because if you are willing to do that, if you are willing to love, if you are willing to fight for a government of compassion and justice and decency, if you are willing to stand up to Trump's desire to divide us up, if you are prepared to stand up to the greed and corruption of the corporate elite, if you and millions of others are prepared to do that, there is no doubt in my mind that not only will we win this election, but together we will transform this country."



UPDATE: Pramila Jayapal

After reading the polling today, Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), author of the House version of the Medicare-for-All bill, sent me this note: "This poll reaffirms what we already know: The vast majority of Americans know that the for-profit health care system needs fundamental structural changes, not nibbles around the edges. Health care costs are a huge crisis for Americans, and that’s why any proposal that just aims to increase accessibility or coverage without addressing the high costs of a system driven by profits simply won’t succeed in giving Americans the health care everyone deserves. Most Americans do not like their private for-profit insurance companies that limit their choices with ‘out-of-network’ doctors and hospitals and keep raising costs to pad their own pockets. Americans do, however, like their doctors, which is why support for Medicare 4 All rises when you explain that it would allow Americans the freedom and choice to go to any provider of their choice-- without any co-pays, premiums or deductibles. Medicare for All is the bold solution that tackles the fundamental systemic change necessary to provide comprehensive, quality, affordable care to everyone-- not just the wealthiest few."