Opinion: Sorry, Bernie, but most Americans like their health insurance the way it is
Sen. Bernie Sanders attends an April 10 news conference in Washington for the Medicare for All Act of 2019. By Megan McArdle Megan McArdle Columnist Bio Follow Columnist May 3 at 3:32 PM The 2020 presidential race looks increasingly like it will be the Medicare-for-all election, as an increasing number of Democratic primary candidates — including front-runners such as Sens. Kamala D. Harris and Bernie Sanders — sign on to the slogan.
If that’s surprising, it’s because most Americans aren’t nearly so sanguine about everyone else’s coverage. Only about a third of people say the general quality of health-care coverage in America is good, and this worries them a great deal. But they tend to think that they themselves are doing just fine. Arguably, the reason they hate the system so much is that they’re fond of their own coverage and fear losing it.
Now consider trying to repeat that stunt with the 49 percent of the population that has employer-sponsored health insurance. The new program might be an improvement, but the only way to find out would be for people to give up something they know they like. That’s a big ask about something as important to people as their health insurance.
The advocates of Medicare-for-all have a ready retort: Other countries seem to have managed all right, so it must be possible here. But most of those countries’ systems started a long time ago, when health care was a much smaller share of the economy and fewer people had robust, comprehensive private medical insurance.
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