A new report from corporate-oriented Democrats called “Deciding to Win” declares that Medicare for All is an “unpopular economic policy”––but advocates say the claim is false.
Author and activist Jeff Cohen points out:
- An Economist/You Gov poll of more than 1,500 adult citizens, conducted in July of this year, found that Medicare for All was supported by 59 percent of those polled (including 36 percent who “strongly support”)––and opposed by only 27 percent.
- Despite fervent opposition from Wall Street and health insurance companies, the Medicare for All Act was introduced in April of this year with more than 100 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives
Cohen writes that popular support for Medicare for All exists despite the fact that the policy is “rarely uplifted and regularly denigrated” in mainstream media.
JEFF COHEN; [email protected]
Cohen is a founder of the media watch group FAIR and a co-founder of RootsAction.
Cohen told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Corporate Democrats have so much money, and their think tanks are so well funded, that no matter what happens in the real world of elections, they have an automatic reaction that the party is too left and must move to the center. What they mean by ‘move to the center’ is to move corporate, because that is what the funders of these think tanks and consultants want. It’s not a left-right spectrum; it’s a top-down spectrum. They want the Democratic Party’s platform to be moved ‘up’ toward corporations, but that is what loses them elections time and again. Corporate Democrats always frame this move as how to appeal to voters.
“It’s crucial to correct these errors claiming that Medicare for All is unpopular with voters. It’s blatantly false. The Medicare for All movement is strong, as shown by the 100-plus co-sponsors of the latest Medicare for All Act in the House this April. In the poll done by the Economist along with YouGov, the numbers were overwhelming. This poll included right-wingers, centrists, people with no college education––everyone. But 59 percent supported Medicare for All and only 27 percent opposed… That is the most recent survey we have… Despite Medicare for All having few friends among the corporate Democratic elite, and few friends in corporate media, it remains popular. It has all this popularity despite it always being maligned in mainstream discussion… M4A is popular and would be far more popular if we had a real, serious debate about it.
“We have to understand that the reason we don’t already have Medicare for All today is because of corporate Democrats. We have a government shutdown right now where the Republicans want to cut down healthcare even more, and the Democrats are fighting like mad for a healthcare status quo that has tens of millions of people uninsured and underinsured. The current attacks on healthcare and Obamacare, which is largely a failed reform, could mean that we can ‘start over’ with Medicare for All. Republicans may weaken Medicaid and existing subsidies, but Medicare for All would subsume and supplant all of that in a way that would be far better than what we have.”