by Raymond J. Keating-
The political Left in the United States has been pushing for socialized medicine since the 1930s. And unfortunately, they have made progress over these past 80-plus years, with government’s role in health care vastly expanded. And the push continues, with the latest effort being dressed up with the name “Medicare for All.”
No matter what it’s called by supporters, the objective remains the same – establishing a government-controlled health care system.
Fortunately, a majority of the American people do not support this effort. As Gallup reported last week: “Americans continue to prefer a healthcare system based on private insurance (54%) over a government-run healthcare system (42%).”
Source: Gallup.com, “Americans Still Favor Private Healthcare System”
Depending on the time horizon, one can say that Americans’ views have improved or gotten worse. For example, matters have eroded if compared to 2013 and 2014, when 61% of Americans favored a health care system based on private insurance (vs. 34% and 35%, respectively, favoring a government system). But they’ve improved versus 2017, when 48% favor private insurance and 47% were for a government system.
As usual today, the split among Democrats and Republicans is stark on the issue. Gallup noted: “Since 2015, after most of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions had gone into effect, an average of 65% of Democrats have favored a government-run system. Over the same period, Republicans have been overwhelmingly opposed to a government-run system, with an average of 13% preferring that approach while 84% have wanted to retain a private system.”
Meanwhile, independents have been split in the recent past, but this year, moved more in favor of private insurance. As Gallup put it: “Independents have been closely divided in recent years, but in 2019 tilt more toward a private (50%) than a government-run (45%) system.”
Yes, Americans often hold conflicting positions on health care and related policies. And it is deeply disturbing that more than 40% of Americans favor government-controlled health care. But a majority still does stand against socialized medicine and its commensurate ills, such as increased taxpayer costs and diminished quality of care, including waiting lines, less innovation and politically-based allocation of care. Of course, work needs to be done in putting aside slick political sloganeering, and instead, educating Americans about the many problems with socialized medicine as made clear via economics, history and experiences in other nations.
Raymond J. Keating is chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.