“To the question of healthcare …” with Sarah Longwell, The Focus Group podcast, The Bulwark, Dec. 6, 2025
Sarah Longwell (1:03:53): “I’ll say on the question of healthcare. So obviously I was a Republican like 20 minutes ago. So I’ve never been like a you know Medicare for All type at all. I think that’s where it’s headed though. I mean just the frustration with health care costs and affordability in general. Like this is where Democrats I think are going to find themselves.
They’re going to have to rediscover how to be a party for the middle class and a party for people who are squeezed across all these different economic vectors and that’s not going to be just gas prices and it’s not going to be just college .. like it’s all these things and I think … people are in the mood, the voters are in the mood for politicians that are going to take big swings …”
Medicare for All Is Popular — Even When Put Up Against Attacks, Data For Progress, Nov. 26, 2025

Comment:
By Jim Kahn, M.D., M.P.H.
Are we approaching the “perfect storm” that brings single payer to life as a politically viable policy option, after eight decades of futility? (for the geeks: Is the Overton window opening?) Maybe so …
Nearly one year into the second Trump administration, several critical factors are aligned to support transformative change: Federal ACA premium subsidies from the COVID era are expiring, and general ACA premium levels are jumping by up to 25%. Massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding will be implemented in 2027. Budget deficits created by massive tax cuts will decrease funding for Medicare. And broad economic anxiety is growing, with ongoing inflation and job losses.
Voters favor a real solution, say key experts. Sarah Longwell is producer of The Bulwark (former GOP political operatives now never-Trumpers) and host of the Focus Group podcast with voters who switched between Trump and Dem candidates 2016-2024. She concludes that voters are in the mood for Dems who take a big swing on healthcare – Medicare for All. Voters care about affordability, and medical care is now front and center for that issue. She is, as she says, not a Medicare for All advocate, but seems to regard its rise as an acceptable part of the Dem come-back.
Quantitative polling tells a similar story. When voters are presented pro-and-con arguments, 58% support Medicare for All. This is consistent with other polling in recent years – suggesting that popular support for single payer remains robust. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal found similarly that “54 percent of voters nationally and 56 percent in battleground districts back Medicare for All.” (from Politico here).
Senator Bernie Sanders makes the case for single payer, noting that voters recognize how “fundamentally broken” our system is. (Brian Tyler Cohen podcast – here) The system is “wildly expensive” and underperforms. He describes his Medicare for All bill – coverage and benefit expansions, and the financial viability. There are also single payer efforts in various forms and stages in individual states.
These are fraught times. From crisis comes opportunity and real reform. Stay the course.
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