Pinko Americans

Via “Gaius” (the blogger formerly known as Marcus) comes this interesting tidbit about Americans’ support for various health care measures. Turns out we overwhelmingly support not only standard fare like Medicare, but also more drastic “socialistic” measures:

The online survey of 2,242 U.S. adults found an overwhelming majority (96%) of Americans “strongly” or “somewhat” favor Medicare, the medical assistance program for the elderly and disabled, while 91% say they support Medicaid, the program to assist people with very low incomes.

The poll also showed high support for policies or practices that are considered more controversial. Eighty-seven percent of those polled say they support funding of international HIV prevention and treatment programs, while 75% favor universal health insurance, compared with 17% who oppose it. Another 70% support embryonic stem-cell research, compared with about 19% who oppose it.

Now, universal health insurance can mean a lot of different things (e.g. single-payer systems like in Canada, mixed systems like in the UK), but it would seem to indicate massive support for some pretty major changes in the way the U.S. delivers health care.

Which makes it all the more baffling that the Dems haven’t made this more central to their campaigns. Too scared after the Clinton health plan debacle?