Recently, Democrats have reinvigorated calls for a single payer healthcare system, popularized in Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan.

Politico recently looked into how the issue has seized the Democratic party, finding that, though the issue has become a go-to talking point, it has less actual support than perceived support. From Politico:

Just 16 percent of Democrats identified support for a national health care plan as the No. 1 issue in determining their vote…Polling also finds that support for Medicare for all — as well as other descriptions of a government-funded health care system — begins to erode when more details are sketched in. For instance, pointing out that funding such a system might require higher taxes drives up opposition by 19 percentage points

For those of us familiar with the issue, this comes as no surprise. While sold as a cure-all, Medicare for all and associated single payer plans are more like a poison pill, driving up costs, reducing choice and stymieing innovation.

In fact, Sen. Sanders himself was publicly corrected just this month for mischaracterizing a study from the Mercatus Center on the policy. Sen. Sanders “cherry-picked” a single portion of the study to present without context to support his position – but, mainstream outlets like Politifact quickly corrected him.

In fact, the study’s author took the extraordinary step to correct the record, speaking with the Washington Examiner about how Sen. Sanders’ claims misrepresent his study.

That’s because the facts just don’t support Medicare for all. Numerous studies have shown that even radical tax increases wouldn’t cover the costs of such as system. Worse, we know that when government runs healthcare they can’t actually reduce the cost of services but can reduce what they’ll pay for – meaning that they ration care for patients.

We see this in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) for numerous services such as a patient who recently waited over two days for an ambulance. Similarly, the NHS must delay approvals of new treatments to control costs, such as a minimally invasive treatment for prostate issues that the NHS approved this month – but was approved by the FDA in 2015.

Beyond cost, this is the more pernicious side effect of a single payer system – because government alone purchases prescription drugs or medical devices, they have an un-checked power to dictate the price of these innovations to private companies.

When the government can simply tell a company what they must accept for years and millions of dollars of research, it is consumers who lose out as such companies cannot afford to expend greater investment into drugs and devices that have no guarantees of success.

Politico’s study highlights an important truth that American voters have long understood, that we need greater competition and less government regulation in our healthcare industry to help bring down costs and increase choice.

Let’s hope that our elected officials figure that out soon, as well.