
Doctors for the 99 Percent march from Zuccotti Park to St. Vincent's Hospital to demand healthcare for all in 2011. (Photo: Michael Fleshman/Flickr/cc)
Spreading 'Like Wildfire': Majority of Americans--Including 74% of Democrats--Now Support Single-Payer
"When people see the justice of an idea, it spreads like wildfire," responded Sen. Bernie Sanders. "The American people know that healthcare should be a right."
"Five years ago, could you have believed that half of Americans would agree we need a single-payer healthcare system?"
That's how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)--a longtime advocate of guaranteeing healthcare for all Americans--responded to a new poll that found that 74 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of all adults surveyed support implementing a single-payer healthcare system in the United States.
"When people see the justice of an idea, it spreads like wildfire," Sanders tweeted Thursday morning. "The American people know that healthcare should be a right."
The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll asked: "Do you support or oppose having a national health plan--or a single-payer plan--in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan?" More than half said they support it:

The results align with other polls conducted within the past year. In September, as Common Dreams reported, 49 percent of all voters and two-thirds of Democrats surveyed by Politico/Morning Consult said they supported "a single-payer healthcare system." A KFF poll from July found that 53 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly favor a single-payer plan.
The growing public support for a single-payer system has coincided with action in Congress. Backed by medical professionals, activists, business leaders, and a "groundbreaking " number of Democratic senators, last September Sanders introduced a Medicare for All bill that would transition the nation's current for-profit healthcare system toward a single-payer one.
Ahead of the 2018 midterm election and amid mounting demands from the American public that federal lawmakers sign on to Sanders's bill, studies and political analysts are finding that support for Medicare for All is a politically viable and increasingly popular stance among candidates.
As Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein pointed out, the recent poll also asked about the nation's current healthcare law--the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare--which garnered a similar amount of support from Americans, challenging the notion that advocating for a Medicare for All solution to the problems that still exist under the ACA is an "extreme left-wing" position:
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
"Five years ago, could you have believed that half of Americans would agree we need a single-payer healthcare system?"
That's how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)--a longtime advocate of guaranteeing healthcare for all Americans--responded to a new poll that found that 74 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of all adults surveyed support implementing a single-payer healthcare system in the United States.
"When people see the justice of an idea, it spreads like wildfire," Sanders tweeted Thursday morning. "The American people know that healthcare should be a right."
The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll asked: "Do you support or oppose having a national health plan--or a single-payer plan--in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan?" More than half said they support it:

The results align with other polls conducted within the past year. In September, as Common Dreams reported, 49 percent of all voters and two-thirds of Democrats surveyed by Politico/Morning Consult said they supported "a single-payer healthcare system." A KFF poll from July found that 53 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly favor a single-payer plan.
The growing public support for a single-payer system has coincided with action in Congress. Backed by medical professionals, activists, business leaders, and a "groundbreaking " number of Democratic senators, last September Sanders introduced a Medicare for All bill that would transition the nation's current for-profit healthcare system toward a single-payer one.
Ahead of the 2018 midterm election and amid mounting demands from the American public that federal lawmakers sign on to Sanders's bill, studies and political analysts are finding that support for Medicare for All is a politically viable and increasingly popular stance among candidates.
As Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein pointed out, the recent poll also asked about the nation's current healthcare law--the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare--which garnered a similar amount of support from Americans, challenging the notion that advocating for a Medicare for All solution to the problems that still exist under the ACA is an "extreme left-wing" position:
"Five years ago, could you have believed that half of Americans would agree we need a single-payer healthcare system?"
That's how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)--a longtime advocate of guaranteeing healthcare for all Americans--responded to a new poll that found that 74 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of all adults surveyed support implementing a single-payer healthcare system in the United States.
"When people see the justice of an idea, it spreads like wildfire," Sanders tweeted Thursday morning. "The American people know that healthcare should be a right."
The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll asked: "Do you support or oppose having a national health plan--or a single-payer plan--in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan?" More than half said they support it:

The results align with other polls conducted within the past year. In September, as Common Dreams reported, 49 percent of all voters and two-thirds of Democrats surveyed by Politico/Morning Consult said they supported "a single-payer healthcare system." A KFF poll from July found that 53 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly favor a single-payer plan.
The growing public support for a single-payer system has coincided with action in Congress. Backed by medical professionals, activists, business leaders, and a "groundbreaking " number of Democratic senators, last September Sanders introduced a Medicare for All bill that would transition the nation's current for-profit healthcare system toward a single-payer one.
Ahead of the 2018 midterm election and amid mounting demands from the American public that federal lawmakers sign on to Sanders's bill, studies and political analysts are finding that support for Medicare for All is a politically viable and increasingly popular stance among candidates.
As Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein pointed out, the recent poll also asked about the nation's current healthcare law--the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare--which garnered a similar amount of support from Americans, challenging the notion that advocating for a Medicare for All solution to the problems that still exist under the ACA is an "extreme left-wing" position:

