Thanks to Donald Trump’s attack on working Americans, a majority of Americans want Medicare for All for the first time since KFF began polling on it in 2016.
In a new KFF’s new Health Tracking Poll the price of gas and health care topped Americans concerns— and yes, that is bipartisan — with Democrats hold a significant advantage over Republicans on handling health care costs and the cost of living. The poll shows a growing support for a national health plan, with 66% of the public supporting it.
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Yes, that’s right. Thanks to Donald J Trump and his weak Republican cheerleaders in the House and Senate, the American public now wants Medicare-for-All, which used to be easily fear-mongered as “socialism” by the Right.
Support for the idea of a national health plan (commonly called “Medicare-for-All”) has grown, rising to about two-thirds (66%) of the public—the highest share since KFF began polling on the topic in 2016, when Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned on the issue. Partisans remain divided, with large shares of Democrats (84%) and independents (72%) in favor and two-thirds (66%) of Republicans opposed. KFF has tracked public opinion on national health plan proposals, including Medicare-for-All, since the late 1990s.
The bad news for Republicans is this sentiment that major changes are needed to the health care system is bipartisan, “with about 9 in 10 Democrats (89%) and three-quarters of Republicans (77%) saying the U.S. health care system needs either a complete overhaul or major changes.”
As the midterms get closer, it’s instructive that Donald J Trump’s attempts to gaslight the public about the horrifyingly fast rising cost of living isn’t working.
A quarter of voters say they are “very worried” about being able to afford the cost of health care and gas and transportation (25% and 25%,) and an additional third say they are “somewhat worried” about health care and gas costs (35% and 34%). These worries outrank voters’ concerns about the affordability of food, utilities, and housing. The vast majority of voters say the cost of living and health care costs (90% and 82%) are “very” or “extremely” important for candidates to discuss during the last pivotal weeks of the campaigns.
Trump and Republicans are desperately trying to culture war themselves out of the reality of their economic policies, but it’s not working because working people literally can’t afford the gas to get to work now and they can’t afford to get sick because of the changes to health care insurance under Trump, including his Big Beautiful BS Bill.
Voters now trust Democrats 2-1 over Republicans on health care. Let that sink in after nearly two decades of Republicans blasting Obamacare. Now that they’ve undermined Obamacare and allowed insurance companies to cheat customers, the public is not happy.
“Democrats hold nearly a two-to-one advantage over Republicans on whom voters trust more on the issue of health care costs (42% vs. 22%) and a significant edge on the cost of living (39% vs. 25%).”
And this difference has escalated recently. “The Democratic edge on health care costs has grown over the past six months. Democrats held an eleven-percentage point advantage over Republicans in April (37% vs. 26%) and a 20-percentage point advantage over Republicans in September (42% vs. 22%).”
Independents trust Democrats over Republicans on health care by at least a two-to-one (38% vs. 9%).
