While 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls are talking about ambitious plans to overhaul the healthcare system such as Medicare for All, voters largely are not, according to Robert Blendon, Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health and professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In a July 26, 2019 WBUR article, he expressed concern that the debate is taking oxygen away from the more immediate issues that voters say they care about, such as the high costs of prescription drugs and insurance premiums, which may have an easier shot of achieving bipartisan changes.
But Blendon didn’t close the door on Medicare for All, noting that the original Medicare law was once deemed impossible to pass. “For a big change to occur, you would have to have a change in the president and their leanings and the Congress. But that happens every now and then,” he said.
Read the WBUR article: The Practical Reasons Candidates Talk About Improbable Policies
Learn more
Voters’ biggest health care concerns are high costs, say experts (Harvard Chan School news)
What the public thinks about high health care costs (Harvard Chan School news)