Far-left Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA) falsely claimed during a MSNBC interview on Monday that no one likes their private insurance plans when, in reality, the overwhelming majority of Americans do.
Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty asked Jayapal, “So what do you say to people who say, ‘hey, I like my private insurance plan. I work for a large employer. It’s relatively inexpensive. It’s relatively a simple system.’ What do you say to people who don’t want to give up their private insurance plans?”
“I would just say, first of all, nobody likes their private insurance plan,” Jayapal falsely claimed. “What they like is their doctor. If you look at all the polling, when people are asked if they want to give up their private insurance, the support goes down a little. If you take them to the next question, which is, ‘if you could keep your doctor, but you were going to have to give up your private insurance plan, the support goes up even higher, including among independents and Republicans.”
The Daily Wire highlighted the following polling statistics yesterday:
- The Hill: “A new poll finds that about only one in 10 registered voters want the equivalent of Medicare for all if it means abolishing private health insurance plans.”
- The Washington Post: “You wouldn’t know it to read most of the news coverage, or to listen to politicians, but that is one of the more consistent results in health-care polling: Over and over again, roughly 7 out of every 10 Americans report that they’re fairly satisfied with the quality of their personal coverage.”
- Gallup: “As the incoming Congress prepares to debate further changes to the U.S. healthcare system, solid majorities of Americans rate the coverage (69%) and quality (80%) of the healthcare they personally receive as ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’”
WATCH:
.@RepJayapal on people who don’t want to give up private insurance for government insurance: "I would just say, first of all, nobody likes their private insurance plan." pic.twitter.com/ZCx1nqa9MY
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 24, 2020
TRANSCRIPT:
TUMULTY: “So what do you say to people who say, ‘hey, I like my private insurance plan. I work for a large employer. It’s relatively inexpensive. It’s relatively a simple system.’ What do you say to people who don’t want to give up their private insurance plans?”
JAYAPAL: “I would just say, first of all, nobody likes their private insurance plan. What they like is their doctor. If you look at all the polling, when people are asked if they want to give up their private insurance, the support goes down a little. If you take them to the next question, which is, ‘if you could keep your doctor, but you were going to have to give up your private insurance plan, the support goes up even higher, including among independents and Republicans. So what people want is health care. And the current plans, the employer-provided health care, even if you’re lucky enough to have that, you are seeing costs increase dramatically. It is why unions have come on board to Medicare for all, because they see the direct connection between wage stagnation and rising health care costs, and what choice do you really have if you have an employer-covered plan? Your employer chooses the plan. Your insurance provider decides what benefits and what doctors and hospitals you get to see, why we have horrible surprise billing that is happening across the country, and if you lose your job or if you’re too sick to go to work, you’ve got no health care at all. I think this is a red herring to say these plans provide choice. What really provides choice is to guarantee insurance for all Americans so that whether you’re in one job or the next you keep the same plan, the same doctors and you actually get to have lower costs and not be providing — not be in that situation where you’re dieing. One more thing I want to say here. A fabulous study just came out published in the ‘Lancit a respected medical journal done by director of infection diseases as Yale university. She estimates, these researchers estimate, that Medicare for all would save over 68,000 lives and save $450 billion annually. Medicare for all who want it actually costs us more and not cover everybody.”