The real issue generally speaking is people with union negotiated healthcare tend to really like their health insurance because in at least certain cases, they're getting Cadillac plans that give them a one up on seeing the best doctors around, in addition to in certain cases paying less in premiums than they would be taxed for M4A.
The second piece is that M4A is a huge unknown, and so they'd want to keep their health insurance because they're afraid that what the government will offer will ultimately be worse.
The first point is certainly easy to address as that money would then likely be renegotiated to result in salary increases, but with regards to the second, what would stop a republican administration from doing things like, effectively banning abortion by refusing to pay doctors who perform them through executive order.
I like my health insurance in the sense that I am fairly confident that I will like my current health insurance better than the insurance I will have in five years. The same way that I liked the insurance I had five years ago better than the insurance I have today.
Basically I think no one expects it to get better, so they are just all hoping it doesn't continue to get worse (while expecting that it will).
That statement was a stumbling block in one of the recent Democratic debates. I have no idea why none of the candidates drive the point that insurance != doctor home(in most cases) .
Warren did, with a pretty decent line something like "I've talked to a lot of people about this and I'm not sure I've ever heard someone say they like their insurance. Their doctor? Their hospital? Sure, but not their insurance. People care about having access to the providers they like—they don't care about their insurance".
I had to tune out after that part of the debate. Watching a bunch of candidates, and especially the frontrunner, claim not that MFA was OK but their plan was better, but that MFA is some kind of impossible dream that can't work, just pissed me off too much. Screw them. Seriously.
I think most people doubt the cost increases, but personally I pay about 10x what I used to pay for worse coverage. My deductible and out of pocket max is higher now too.
It's worth pointing out that for the vast majority of people doctors != insurance. The payer is not the provider.
The refrain of "people like their health insurance" deliberately conflates the two. People like their doctors, not their insurance. Doctors accept multiple insurance companies.
And to top it off, old people (actual old people) are already using socialized medicine. They aren't using private insurance (or, if they are, it's used to cover coinsurance/deductibles).
I felt this is something that politicians say to two groups: the insurance companies and the "anti-socialism" libertarian crowd (who have injected themselves into the republican party).
