Washington, D.C. – A Democratic Senator says some of his conservative constituents are warming to the idea of universal government-run insurance which has long been a policy goal of progressives.
Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon made the comments during a discussion on health care legislation on CNN’S “New Day.”
“What I’m hearing–even in these conservative parts of my state that I lost by 30, 40% when I was running for re-election–what I’m hearing is the system is way too stressful. I’ve been asking each audience, I’ve been saying, ‘How many people here 10 years ago would have supported a single-payer Medicare-for-all?’ And it’s a small number. And then I ask, ‘How many now?’ And the hands just go up throughout the room. People are so stressed about the complexity and difficulty of our health care system. Can’t we make this simpler?”
Merkley’s Republican colleagues in Congress, however, have given no indication they would consider legislation to create a single-payer health insurance program.
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