Dems shift on health care

LAS VEGAS — Rankand-file Democrats appear to be shifting to the middle on health care, worried about what's politically achievable on their party's top 2020 issue.

While “Medicare f or All” remains huge ly popular, the majority say they'd prefer building on “Obamacare” to expand coverage instead of a new government program that replaces America's mix of private and public insurance.

Highlighted by a recent national poll, the shifting views are echoed in interviews with voters and the evolving positions of Democratic presidential candidates . Some have backed away from the government-run plan championed by Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts that for months had seemed to be gaining momentum.

It could mean trouble for Sanders and his supporters, signaling a limit to how far Democratic voters are willing to move to the left amid doubts that Americans would back such dramatic changes to their health care.

“We hear Medicare for All, but I'm not absolutely certain what that means and what that would then mean for me,” said Democrat Terrie Dietrich, who lives near Las Vegas. “Does it mean that private insurance is gone forever?”

Diet rich ,74, has Medicare and supplements that with private insurance, an arrangement she said she's pretty comfortable with.

She thinks it's important that everyone has health care, not just those who can afford it. She said she would support Medicare for All if it was the only way to achieve that.

But “I don't think we can ever get it passed,” Dietrich added.

Erin Cross, her 54- yearold daughter and also a Democrat, said she's uncomfortable with switching to a system in which a government plan is the only choice. She said Democrats won't be able to appeal to Republicans unless they strike a middle ground and allow people to keep their private insurance.

“We've got to get some of these other people, these Republican voters, to come on over just to get rid of Trump,” she said.