Medicare for All/vs/M4A-Option
About
The idea of providing M4A as an additional choice, to be added to the existing field of private insurers, is substantially more popular than Pure M4A where the insurance industry is replaced altogether. This is often referred to as the "public option" scenario, and bears some similarity to the "public option" that was much discussed in 2009 as part of the reform efforts which eventually led to Obamacare.
Australia
One question is whether this kind of system has been tried anywhere. It is apparently much like the healthcare system in Australia:
[...]delivered [...] by both government and private companies which are often covered by Medicare. Health care in Australia is largely funded by the government at national, state and local governmental levels, as well as by private health insurance; but the cost of health care is also borne by not-for-profit organisations, with a significant cost being borne by individual patients or by charity.
Links
- Research Australia: Public Opinion Polling on healthcare (includes polls for every year going back to 2008)
- In at least the 2019 and 2018 polls, "Improving hospitals and the healthcare system" was the public's top priority (87%). This does not speak of a healthy system.
- 2019-04-15 What Australia can teach America about health care: generally positive?
- 2019-11-01 The health system in my native Australia has a lot to learn from the U.S. "Compared to my situation in Australia, I pay less in California to see a physician, I find it easier to get in touch with my clinicians and make appointments for health care services, and I pay substantially less for my medications." So California (the "socialist hell") under the current system is better than Australia.