SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Some candidates in the midterms have been pushing for Medicare for All, and a new poll shows support for the concept is the highest it's been in a decade. But what does Medicare for All actually mean? Kate Wells at KFF Health News reports that it's become political shorthand for radical change to the healthcare system, even for people who aren't totally sure what it is.
KATE WELLS: I barely say the word healthcare to Christina Starks-Clay before she whips her phone out and shows me a screenshot.
CHRISTINA STARKS-CLAY: So that was the day we both had good insurance.
WELLS: It's a photo of a $1,000 cashier's check. She just picked it up that day for her son's dental bills.
STARKS-CLAY: I still have a balance of 389. Yeah. My cleaning on the 18th, $600.
WELLS: This is why she is here in Lansing, Michigan, at a town hall for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
STARKS-CLAY: So I need to hear, how are you going to make this better for everyone?
(APPLAUSE)
WELLS: This race could determine which party controls the Senate. And El-Sayed kicks off his rallies with this slogan - money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All.
ABDUL EL-SAYED: Money out of?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Politics.
EL-SAYED: Money in your?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Pocket.
EL-SAYED: Medicare for?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: All.
EL-SAYED: There it is.
WELLS: Democratic candidates are also talking about Medicare for All in states like Florida, Minnesota and Maine, and voters are listening.
ASHLEY KIRZINGER: Support for Medicare for All is at the highest point since we've started measuring it.
WELLS: This is Ashley Kirzinger. She does polling for KFF, a health policy research organization. And their latest poll shows healthcare costs are one of people's biggest financial concerns and that 2 in 3 Americans now say they favor Medicare for All, mostly Democrats and independents.
KIRZINGER: But people don't have a lot of knowledge about what Medicare for All means.
WELLS: Here is what Medicare for All usually means, like when Senator Bernie Sanders introduced it in Congress - a single insurance program run by the federal government, paid for by taxes that would replace or radically change private insurance. And Kirzinger says how people feel about Medicare for All depends on which arguments you give them. If you argue, hey, it would eliminate premiums, they like it. If you say, but it could lead to treatment delays, they don't. Mike Rogers is El-Sayed's Republican opponent, and he is spending a lot of time and money attacking Medicare for All.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
MIKE ROGERS: You know, the estimates are that this is going to cost in excess of $4 trillion. Guess what? People pay for that.
WELLS: At Rogers' recent press conference, he was joined by Jamie Thompson, a Republican state lawmaker and a former nurse. She spoke about her fears of socialized medicine.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
JAMIE THOMPSON: Patients will wait, providers will become overwhelmed and the people that need this care are going to suffer the most.
CINDY LOU KULICH: I am retired.
WELLS: At Abdul El-Sayed's town hall in Lansing, Cindy Lou Kulich (ph) is right up front. She is wearing a campaign T-shirt and a cowboy hat. She's had her own medical difficulties, like sepsis that left her disabled and unable to work.
KULICH: I lost the farm after a year. I lost everything except my car.
WELLS: Before that, she worked in health insurance, helping uninsured patients try to get coverage.
KULICH: Some of these patients had bills over a million dollars.
WELLS: She would try to help them enroll in Medicaid, but sometimes they just could not get through the red tape.
KULICH: We would have clients that would die before they could get eligibility for Medicaid.
WELLS: She does not think that that is the sign of a functioning healthcare system. I'm Kate Wells in Lansing, Michigan.
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