- Net support for a candidate that supports ‘Medicare For All’ over building on the ACA was at 52 points in August, up from 35 points in January
- Still, Joe Biden retains his lead among potential Democratic primary voters, polling at 33% while Bernie Sanders is at 20%
As distinctions between Democratic presidential hopefuls become increasingly stark nearly six months before the 2020 Iowa caucuses, a new survey finds enthusiasm within the party’s electorate for a candidate that supports “Medicare for All” over building on the Affordable Care Act has surged over the course of 2019.
Morning Consult/Politico polls taken Jan. 25-27 and Aug. 23-25 asked voters if — and in what direction — a candidate’s support for implementing a Medicare for All system over preserving and improving the ACA would affect their likelihood of backing that candidate.
Among Democrats, net support (the share of those who said that attitude would make them more likely to back a candidate minus the share who said they would be less likely) grew from 35 points in January to 52 points in the latest poll, which surveyed 1,987 registered voters, including 768 Democratic voters. The overall poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points, while the subsample has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
While it is challenging to draw direct links between a candidate’s position in one particular policy area and their subsequent performance in the polls, affinity toward Medicare for All by three of the four current frontrunners (albeit to varying degrees) is worth noting when taken alongside the survey results, and revealing of the leftward shift within the Democratic Party during this primary.
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Eagan Kemp, a health policy expert at the progressive nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, noted how the dialogue around health care has changed from January through August: three House committee hearings on Medicare for All, extensive time devoted to the issue in two Democratic presidential primary debates and ongoing coverage of the differences between the candidates’ plans.
Still, the data comes as former Vice President Joe Biden — who has spurned a single-payer system in favor of expanding the ACA with a public option — continues holding tight to his 13-point advantage over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the party’s loudest supporter of Medicare for All.
Date: September 04, 2019
Source: Morning Consult
