The hits keep coming for Medicare for All. Gallup’s annual health-care survey of adults found that Americans back a system based on private insurance rather than government provision by 54 percent to 42 percent. “This could create a challenge in a general election campaign for a Democratic presidential nominee advocating a ‘Medicare for All’ or other healthcare plan that would greatly expand the government’s role in the healthcare system,” writes Jeffrey M. Jones. That’s putting it mildly.


While Democrats prefer a government-run system by 65 percent to 31 percent, Republicans are overwhelming opposed and independents narrowly so. Most Americans say the government should ensure people have health coverage. They disagree over the means.

A government program that would eliminate private health insurance spells doom for presidential campaigns not only because voters recoil at the policy implications, but also because candidates come off as posturing and sophistical when they back away from the “bold, structural change” they once advocated. Progressives continue to flirt with the idea anyway. They can’t help it.