Poll: Most young people want a government-run healthcare system

While most adults in the United States say they want to keep our current healthcare system based on private insurance, a new Gallup poll shows that a slight majority of young people would prefer a government-run model of coverage (h/t Politico).

Gallup found that 53% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 would prefer a government-run healthcare system over a system based on private insurance. All other age groups surveyed said that they preferred the private system.

Perhaps young people’s faith in an entirely government-run system stems from the fact that they have benefited from healthcare legislation enacted in their lifetimes. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, for example, helped at least three million adults between the ages of 19 and 25 get private health insurance between September 2010 and December 2011.

Gallup also found that, for the first time since 2008, a majority of people (51%) feel that the government is responsible with ensuring healthcare coverage. For the first time since 2008? Wait, what happened in 2008 to suddenly polarize the healthcare coverage deba—oh, right.

The research organization conducted the poll earlier this month as a part of their yearly Health and Healthcare survey.