Backing for single-payer insurance is growing ahead of theplanned introduction on Wednesday of the Medicare for All Act fromSenator Bernie Sanders, I-VT.

The latest supporter is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI,reports the Miami Herald. He joinssenators Cory Booker,D-NJ; Jeff Merkley, D-OR; Kirsten Gillibrand,D-NY; Kamala Harris, D-CA, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA in supportingthe bill, which would create a single-payer national health careinsurance system.

In a statement on his website, Whitehouse, a member of the SenateHealth, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said,“It’s time we had a real conversation about creating a nationalhealth plan. That’s why I intend to cosponsor Senator Sanders’bill. And I’ll continue to explore other ways we can improve healthcare and lower costs, including adding a publicly operated healthinsurance option to individual marketplaces, like the one Icoauthored with Senators Brown and Franken.”

In January, Whitehouse and senators Sherrod Brown, D-OH, and AlFranken, D-MN, reintroduced legislation to create a public healthinsurance option that would guarantee American consumers access toan affordable, high-quality plan in every health insurance marketin the country. Whitehouse and Brown drafted similar legislationwhen the Senate was deliberating the Affordable Care Act in2009.

ThinkProgress reports that while he hasn’t endorsed Sanders’Medicare for All bill, Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT, has also said that hesupports a single-payer system. At Montana State University, hesaid, “My personal view is we’ve got to start looking atsingle-payer. I think we should have hearings… We’re getting there.It’s going to happen,” according to the report.

CNN reports that the notion of single-payer healthinsurance has been steadily gaining support among Democrats andcould gain even more cosponsors. The report says, “[t]he Housecompanion bill, from Michigan Rep. John Conyers, has 117 cosponsors, a little more than 60percent of the entire caucus.”

The report also highlights the changing attitude not just amongpoliticians, but the general public, pointing to a Pew survey from mid-June that “found more thanhalf of Democrats supported such a program. Among liberals, thenumber jumped to 64 percent. Looking across party lines, the pollfound that a third of Americans backed the policy, up 12 pointsfrom 2014.”