Medicare for All didn’t die when Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign. Far from it.

Its advocates predict that support for government-funded health care will grow because of a force more powerful and unpredictable than politics — the coronavirus pandemic. It’s already contributed to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s decision to propose a significant expansion of Medicare, though he still opposes Sanders’ idea of having the government plan cover everyone.

“The pandemic is the game changer. It is the X factor,” said Michael Lighty, an Oakland resident who advocated for Medicare for All across the country as the Sanders campaign’s health care constituency director. The health care industry “can no longer control the political process,” he said.

Advocates believe Americans will grow disenchanted with employer-based health care as many lose their coverage along with their jobs. More than 47 million people could be unemployed by July, a jobless rate of 32% that would exceed the worst estimated levels of the Great Depression, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Nearly half of Americans get their health coverage through their employer.

Coverage is still available outside of employers through the Affordable Care Act, but the cost is soaring as the pandemic spreads. Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace, says premiums could spike 40% next year.

“It’s the combination of massive economic dislocation and a health crisis like we haven’t seen in our lifetimes,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in San Francisco. It is not associated with the Kaiser Permanente health care system and doesn’t take a position on government-administered health care.

“If there were ever a crisis that could propel an idea like Medicare for All, this is it,” Levitt said.

A majority of Democratic voters supported Medicare for All in nearly every state that has held primaries and caucuses this year, according to CNN exit polls. Last week, a Morning Consult poll found that backing for the idea was up to 55% among registered voters, the highest mark in nearly a year. Rising support among Democrats accounted for some of the surge, but more than half of independents also now back Medicare for All, the poll indicated.

Republicans overwhelmingly oppose it, both in Washington and among the electorate. Nonetheless, its leading congressional advocates envision a turning point.

“I think in some ways we won the ideological battle on Medicare for All, even in states that didn’t support Sen. Sanders,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a Sanders supporter and leading advocate for Medicare for All in the House.

Levitt isn’t so sure. The Kaiser Family Foundation took polls on Medicare for All both in February, before the coronavirus was on most people’s minds, and this month. Support rose just two points in that time, to 54%.

“I don’t think we can say yet whether the crisis has had any noticeable effect,” Levitt said.

But advocates expect support to grow as the pandemic exposes what they see as the shortcomings of the for-profit health care system.

Medicare for All would cover the 27 million Americans who still lack insurance. Among those are many people with existing health problems, who are at elevated risk of dying if they contract the coronavirus. An estimated 20% of people under 65 with pre-existing conditions don’t have health coverage, according to federal statistics.

“Typically, in a normal year, most people go through the year in good health and don’t give it a second thought,” said Wendell Potter, a former vice president for corporate communications at Cigna who now advocates for Medicare for All. “This is bringing into focus for a lot of people that their health insurance is very insecure.”

Jayapal said that if the federal government were running the health care system, it would be easier to direct equipment like masks and ventilators to the places that need them, instead of having states bid against each other.

Progressives like Jayapal see similarities to the last economic crash, in 2008, which provided Democrats with the popular support to pass the Affordable Care Act two years later.

Last week, she and Sanders proposed legislation that would enable Medicare to cover all treatment costs for the uninsured and out-of-pocket costs for everyone with insurance for the duration of the pandemic. On Friday, she and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, held an online training session for two dozen Democratic House candidates who support Medicare for All or wanted to hear more about it.

Biden has recoiled from the multitrillion-dollar cost of Medicare for All, but he inched toward Sanders’ signature issue last week with a proposal that he said had been prompted by the pandemic: lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60.

“It is quite important symbolically, because it presents Medicare as the platform to expand coverage, which is what Sanders is proposing,” Levitt said. “It’s a baby step toward what Sanders wants.”

Jayapal was encouraged, but said, “I am looking for more from Joe Biden.

“The question now is how far can we get Joe Biden to reorganize the devastation of our health care system and propose a series of steps that get us to the ultimate goal of universal health care in his first term?” Jayapal said. “Because if he doesn’t have a plan to fix this, then we will lose again.”

Winning support in Washington remains the largest hurdle facing Jayapal and other advocates. A majority of congressional Democrats don’t support Medicare for All, and Republicans are unanimous in their opposition. Even if Biden wins in November, Levitt said, “I don’t see him risking all of his political capital on Medicare for All right away.”

“This (moment) may be a perfect setup for Medicare for All,” Levitt said. “But it is not perfect enough for it to happen now.”

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli