Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, say they support a single-payer health care system. In this photo, Californians protest in support of a single-payer system for their state. | Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Poll: Plurality supports single-payer health care

While Republicans inch toward their latest attempt to roll back the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are having a different debate: whether the party should support a single-payer health care plan.

Some Democratic leaders think single-payer goes further than voters might want, but a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows the proposal is fairly popular — at least in principle.


Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, say they support “a single-payer health care system, where all Americans would get their health insurance from one government plan” — greater than the 35 percent who oppose such a plan. Seventeen percent of voters have no opinion. Two-thirds of Democratic voters support single-payer, while 18 percent oppose it.

Support among Democratic voters has jumped since the last POLITICO/Morning Consult poll to test a single-payer plan, said Kyle Dropp, co-founder and chief research officer of Morning Consult.

“The surge of support for single-payer health care among Democrats is striking,” Dropp said. “In April, 54 percent of Democrats supported the notion. Just five months later and that support has risen to 67 percent.”

Single-payer was part of a battery of questions on four progressive proposals, but those questions did not include any mentions of funding mechanisms for these programs.

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A single-payer system is even more popular than the “public option,” described to poll respondents as “a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with other private health insurance companies within the U.S.” Forty-four percent of voters back a public option, compared with 33 percent who oppose it. More voters, 22 percent, have no opinion.

GOP voters generally oppose both single-payer and public-option proposals — though the poll doesn’t show overwhelming opposition. A 52 percent majority of Republicans oppose single-payer, while 33 percent support it. On a public option, it’s 43 percent of Republicans opposed and 36 percent in support.

A progressive proposal on education finds even more backers than those on health care. Asked whether they would support “a proposal to make four-year public colleges and universities tuition-free,” 62 percent say they would, while 29 percent oppose tuition-free college.

Less popular but still with plurality support: a universal basic income. Told it is “a proposal in which the government would provide all Americans a regular, unconditional sum of money,” 43 percent support it, and 39 percent oppose it.

The new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted September 14-17, surveying 1,994 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: http://politi.co/2yo0ExH | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2xg1koS

