In a new survey from The New York Times as well as the Commonwealth Fund and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, we forced the issue. We asked a panel of 2,005 adults to pick their favorite plan from three choices. One resembled the Medicare for all proposal; one was like more incremental Democratic proposals; and one was like a plan proposed by congressional Republicans, which would reduce federal involvement in the health system and give more money and autonomy to states.

The share of the public supporting each option wound up being almost identical — around 30 percent each.

That means that most Americans support Democratic approaches to changing the health care system. But that group is about evenly split between an expansive set of changes under the Medicare for all proposal favored by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and a less sweeping overhaul that would simply move the country closer to universal coverage, such as those from Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.