David Axelrod: ‘Large Numbers of People Oppose Medicare for All if it Replaces Private Insurance’
“And the fact is large numbers of people oppose the Medicare for All proposal if it replaces private insurance.”
Health care took center stage at the Democratic debate on Tuesday night. The loudest voices, mainly Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, yelled for Medicare for All while demonizing private insurance companies.
A few of the other candidates attempted to remind them that private insurance has satisfied many people. Warren and Sanders refused to listen, but David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, cautioned the Democrats that most people oppose Medicare for All along with a few other radical talking points.
Axelrod, now a CNN contributor, said to Warren after the debate:
You said something interesting when was, it isn’t good enough to argue that the country doesn’t want this. It does seem as if you’re running for president that you ought to take into consideration what the country wants. And the fact is large numbers of people oppose the Medicare for All proposal if it replaces private insurance.
We’ve seen it in poll after poll, a large number of people in this country do not believe the border should be decriminalized. A large number of people in did country don’t believe that undocumented immigrants should qualify for public [aid]…
I appreciate your feelings about these issues and I’m very passionate about health care myself. I was in the White House when we fought just to get the Affordable Care Act, couldn’t get a public option. So Bernie Sanders was there. He knows that. He knows that what he’s talking about is not going to happen any time soon.
And so should the party move forward — this is what Democrats are asking. Do we move forward with these idealized proposals that are going to beg opposition and make it easier for Donald Trump to make his case and win re-election when the stakes are so high? This is what a lot of Democrats are worried about.
Warren insisted “she would build a movement to gain support and reminded Axelrod that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act passed despite not having the majority support of American people.”
The moderators and the CNN panel afterwards pressed Warren about paying for Medicare for All, bringing up taxing the middle class. She always avoided a straight answer probably because it would have to happen to pay for the program.
Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight wrote six days ago that Medicare for All is not popular among Americans…even Democrats:
The thing is, though — according to new polling from Marist College this week — Sanders’s plan isn’t actually the most popular idea in the field. Instead, that distinction belongs to what Marist calls “Medicare for all that want it,” or what’s sometimes called a public option — something very similar to Joe Biden’s recently unveiled health care plan, which claims to give almost everyone “the choice to purchase a public health insurance option like Medicare.”
In the Marist poll, 90 percent of Democrats thought a plan that provided for a public option was a good idea, as compared to 64 percent who supported a Sanders-style Medicare for All plan that would replace private health insurance. The popularity of the public option also carries over to independent voters: 70 percent support it, as compared to 39 percent for Medicare for All.
On Tuesday morning, The Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll discovered that only 51% of Americans support Medicare for All. The support dropped five points since April when it hit 56%.
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Comments
It’s pretty bad when Axelrod is made to look like the moderate.
Yes when the Dems have lost David Axelhoe…….
or what’s sometimes called a public option — something very similar to Joe Biden’s recently unveiled health care plan, which claims to give almost everyone “the choice to purchase a public health insurance option like Medicare.”
So you can buy health insurance, or you can buy health insurance.
Sounds like a real breakthrough there.
Compared to the Marxist zealots comprising the Dim field, Axelgrease is a much more savvy liar and manipulator. He’s a totalitarian too, but he knows the frog must be brought to a boil slowly.
Reality check – Health Care is a finite resource. There are only so many orthopedic surgeons and only so many surgical suites. It Medicare is expanded to all lower class Americans – there will not be enough to go around. That means rationing. There is no way around that.
Do Seniors want rationed medical care? They will be the ones who lose it first.
“”Do Seniors want rationed medical care? They will be the ones who lose it first.””
We already have it. It’s called “Medicare”. It’s already rationed, because according to most of the analyses I’ve seen, no medical practice can survive with more than a fraction of the practice consisting of Medicare patients – around 25% or so. Ergo, some of those like me who rarely need medical care find it difficult to find a GP who will accept us into his/her practice. And while a few accept “Tricare Standard”, “Tricare for Life” is a joke. Naturally we have the option of trying to pay cash, but not many people can actually afford contemporary prices for medical care.
In the UK, no one over 60 gets a hip or a knee. They are automatically denied and told they can apply to the lottery where one in ten ‘win’ the operation.
This is what “Stone Death” sounds like!
Of course they oppose it. Democrats KNOW that.
Why do you think Obama told the ludicrous lie about keeping their doctor?
They KNOW that the only way to get it is to lie about it. But once its in place its never going away because the RINOs are cowards.
Warren insisted “she would build a movement to gain support and reminded Axelrod that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act passed despite not having the majority support of American people.”
Lady, can you hear the words coming out of your mouth???
“…passed despite not having the majority support of American people.”
And that’s okay with you???
They think we are too stupid to make choices for ourselves.
Once you understand they don’t care about your health, then it all makes sense.
They just want you under their boot.
Do you remember how in Obama’s Greatest Depression Evah, the Democrats were actively encouraging white people to commit suicide?
What they will end up doing is poisoning the supply of health care providers who do not want to be government employees.
“And so should the party move forward — this is what Democrats are asking. Do we move forward with these idealized proposals that are going to beg opposition and make it easier for Donald Trump to make his case and win re-election when the stakes are so high? This is what a lot of Democrats are worried about.”
Translation: “Do like Barack Obama. Lie about your intentions.”
Medicare for all treats symptoms at the expense of persistent causes. Good luck to Trump and the willing who are addressing progressive prices, and, perhaps, people will take it upon themselves to moderate instant gratification, gluttony, and other self-defeating choices.
I wonder if Axelrod’s name shows up on Epstein’s manifests.
Warren insisted “she would build a movement to gain support and reminded Axelrod that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act passed despite not having the majority support of American people.”
And had the repubs put up a decent and real conservative bho would have been relegated to minor celebrity status as another democrat has been.
I oppose Medicare for anyone that did not earn it.
The Veteran’s Administration is our basic model for Medicare for All. People literally Die waiting for care. People literally Die as a result of inadequate care. Wait times are long, resources are scarce. Inept administrators can’t be fired. Criminal employees are rehired once their sentences are completed. Patients are abused….THIS is what they want?