It strikes me as much easier to scare people about government-run health care than it is to muster the leadership to get universal health care (or, in the current iteration of Democratic proposals, universal access to affordable health care coverage) passed. As no one is actually proposing universal health care, I think the explanatory barrier to overcome fear mongering from any side is actually higher now than it would be with a simple Medicare-for-All proposal. Fear mongering is going to be more effective when the plans being proposed are complex and complicated.