‘Stunning’ Level of Support for Universal Health Care: Jayapal

https://portside.org/2026-09-22/stunning-level-support-universal-health-care-jayapal

Portside Date: September 22, 2026

Author: Whitney Curry Wimbish

Date of source: September 21, 2026

The American Prospect

Medicare for All is a winning policy supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters that can give the party a boost, including in battleground states, according to a new survey from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and her political action committee.

The Medicare for All PAC survey found that not only do 94 percent of Democratic voters support a universal public health insurance program, but so do a majority of moderate and independent voters. It also found that Medicare for All is a winning issue in battleground states, where Jayapal said progressives are constantly told to moderate their messaging on universal health care.

Overall, 60 percent of participants said they favored Medicare for All, up from 54 percent in a similar but not identical survey last year. Even in the more conservative battleground districts, support remained at 55 percent, “well ahead of partisanship in those districts,” Jayapal told reporters on a call last week.

Some candidates are taking this advice. In a critical toss-up House district in the Central Valley of California, Democrat Randy Villegas is running on Medicare for All as his biggest legislative priority. And in the presidential swing state of Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed rose on the strength of a Medicare for All pitch to win his primary election despite over $60 million in outside super PAC attacks, and polling shows him ahead in the general election.

Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research conducted the survey on behalf of Medicare for All PAC in August, querying 1,200 likely 2026 voters. Medicare for All PAC has so far spent $2 million in this election cycle alone backing candidates who support the policy, Jayapal said, adding that she plans to push for a markup in the next Congress of the Medicare for All bill that she, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sponsored.

THE NEW POLLING COMES AS PRESIDENT TRUMP’S POLICIES have kicked millions of Americans off of health insurance and raised costs for those who have managed to hang onto insurance, both private and public. His One Big Beautiful Bill Act law ripped $1 trillion out of Medicaid to pay for permanent tax cuts for the richest Americans and corporations, a policy choice that is expected to disenroll five million to ten million people by 2028, according to an analysis this spring by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute. A more recent analysis found that 2.3 million young adults could lose Medicaid under the cuts.

Rising pharmaceutical use and astronomical list prices are also straining Medicare costs. And the end of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act exchanges has spiked insurance premiums and made coverage too expensive for millions more.

Employer-funded health insurance is expected to rise, too, because insurance companies are maintaining their profit margins by shifting the cost of the lost Medicare money to that group of patients. In 2027, premiums are expected to cost more than $19,000 per worker, an increase of 9.5 percent from this year, Healthcare Dive reported last month, and half of employers plan to pass more of that cost on to workers. Many are outright dropping health benefits.

These policy choices will increase the overall share of uninsured Americans, which in 2025 was about 26.7 million people, or 7.9 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau on Tuesday. In May, the National Center for Health Statistics put that figure at 28 million, or about 8.3 percent.

Trump’s cuts are reducing the number of places people can get health care even when they can afford it. As of Wednesday, Protect Our Care had tallied 614 hospitals that have closed wards or shuttered completely and another 613 at risk of doing the same. Contrary to conventional wisdom, most of these hospitals are in urban areas, as the Prospect reported in July.

At the same time, Trump’s pro-disease health secretary, RFK Jr., has made the entire nation sicker, including through his anti-vaccination crusade, which has caused 3,294 confirmed measles cases as of September 11, an increase of 1,000 over all of the cases last year. His Centers for Disease Control records no measles deaths for the year, a lie of omission. Four people have died from measles in Pennsylvania, including two infants.

Anger and fear over physical safety in America is unmissable, Rep. Jayapal told reporters, and fewer people are buying old talking points about how Medicare for All is impossible because it’s too expensive and will raise taxes.

“These arguments simply don’t work anymore because they have seen their health care collapse, their premiums increase dramatically, and their levels of medical debts soar,” Jayapal said. “The unpopularity of and anger towards the current system shows up in the poll again and again.”

A statistic from the poll buttresses that point: 70 percent of respondents criticized for-profit insurance companies, eight percentage points more than polling found just months ago. Even more—73 percent—had a negative view of prescription drug companies.

The survey captured the financial reality Americans face because of health care costs. One in three spend more than $500 monthly on health care, up 25 percent from last year. One in four carry medical debt above $1,000; that group of voters is 68 percent in support of Medicare for All. It also showed that Americans frequently can’t get care even if they could pay for it. Thirty-eight percent overall have been denied coverage by their plans; people of color specifically face an even higher rate of denial, at 46 percent. Seventy-one percent of voters who have been denied treatment support the policy.

“Moreover, among low-propensity voters—the kind of voters who sometimes skip midterms and often believe the outcome of elections do not make much of a difference in their lives—support reaches 66 percent,” the survey findings report says.

The survey found that Democratic candidates who support Medicare for All do just as well, if not better, than candidates who do not support it, even in conservative-leaning battleground districts. And when the parties are stripped out completely, the pro–Medicare for All candidate wins by 14 points.

Universal health care will be decisive in 2028, the survey says. “The Democratic base has coalesced behind this issue,” the report says. “It is hard to find an issue outside of abortion and hatred for Trump where 94 percent of Democrats come to the same conclusion.”

Jayapal described on the call messaging that has resonated with voters, including that the current system is too expensive, denies people care, and serves to enrich for-profit insurance and drug companies “while we get sicker and poorer.” Medicare for All offers freedom to shift jobs, avoid debt and surprise bills, and allows doctors to focus on patient care.

“At the end of the day,” she said, “Medicare for All is no longer a fringe issue.”