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Morning Briefing

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Tuesday, May 17 2016

Full Issue

New Polling Finds Americans Favor Single-Payer Health System

The idea of federally funded health care, recently popularized by Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for "Medicare for All," is supported by a majority of Americans, including a large percentage of Republicans, a new Gallup poll finds. Meanwhile, Republican leaders see the federal health law as a key to their strategy for the fall campaign.

A growing number of Americans now support the idea of federally-funded healthcare, according to a new poll conducted by Gallup measuring response to each of the three remaining Presidential candidates' proposed healthcare policies. When presented with three different scenarios for the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), based on the candidates' positions, 58 percent of U.S. adults favored Sen. Bernie Sanders' idea of replacing the law with a single-payer, federally-funded healthcare system that provides insurance for all Americans. (Edison Hayden, 5/16)

The politics of Obamacare aren't all that complicated. Republicans have called for the Affordable Care Act to be "repealed and replaced" for years, with only sporadic attempts to articulate what the replacement would be. On the Democratic side, the question that's emerged over the course of the primary is whether or not the program should be expanded and improved (Hillary Clinton's argument) or if we should push for a complete overhaul, moving toward a "single-payer" system like Medicare (Bernie Sanders's argument). In a round of polling conducted this month, Gallup figured out which of those ideas was the most popular. And the result? It's sort of a three-way tie. (Bump, 5/16)

Donald Trump and Senate Republicans believe ObamaCare will re-emerge as an explosive political issue before the November elections. At a private strategy meeting on Thursday, Trump and Senate Republicans agreed that President Obama’s signature law could be a millstone around Hillary Clinton’s neck. Republicans point to reports of rising premiums in arguing the public will turn firmly against the reform law. They say a fight over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could help elect a GOP president this fall and keep the Senate in Republican hands. (Bolton, 5/17)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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