Many voters say health care is unaffordable, open to new insurance system: Poll
New polls show that a majority of voters say that health care in the United States is unaffordable and open to a health insurance system that does not tie coverage to employment.
Unjustified Medical Debt, a nonprofit that works to eliminate medical debt and advocates for policies to prevent new debt, sponsored the poll, which was led by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem. In addition to a national survey, focus groups were also asked for their views on health care.
The Hill was voted first.
The survey found that 69 percent of voters believe that health care is not affordable today, a number that is relatively consistent across parties.
Thirty-five percent of participants said they currently owe money or have debt due to medical or dental expenses. The same percentage said they avoided or delayed medical care in the past year because of fear of medical debt.
Survey participants were asked if they had given up at least one of eight items in the past year to meet their financial goals. These include eating out less, skipping vacations, overspending on their credit cards, falling behind on bills, and borrowing money from friends and family.
Of those surveyed, 68 percent said they engaged in at least one exercise, 43 percent said they ate less or bought less expensive, less healthy foods.
One participant, a 43-year-old uninsured white woman in West Virginia, said in the survey, “I go to a food pantry and I do three jobs. You know what I mean? It’s hard, and it shouldn’t be that hard. I don’t have time to spend with my kids. I don’t have time to do things, because what I have to eat, it makes me hard.”
“It’s a common ground issue that you know is resonating with people. Health care is clearly unaffordable,” Allison Sesso, president and CEO of Unwanted Medical Debt, told The Hill.
“What I thought was really interesting was the focus on insurance,” Sesso added. “Seventy-five percent say insurance is failing to protect them from medical debt. And I think that’s a little new to me. It’s not new that insurance isn’t doing so well, but such a large percentage of voters on both sides of the aisle are pointing to it as one of the biggest failures.”
Sixty-three percent of participants said they held insurance companies most responsible for medical debt, followed closely by pharmaceutical companies at 12 percent and hospitals at 9 percent.
76 percent of voters said they agreed with the statement: “We need to switch to a different system of health insurance where people can change jobs or become self-employed and not have to worry about losing their health insurance.”
“They want to see a system that doesn’t tie them so tightly to their job, because it prevents them from moving around,” Seso said. “And, you know, if you’re not sick, you’re penalized for being in a job, and you don’t have the ability to be self-employed, the insurance aspect of the job that requires you to keep that job.
When it comes to addressing medical debt, 76 percent said they want their states to pass legislation to protect them from medical debt. Measures receiving significant support include capping interest rates on medical loans, limiting the ability of collection agencies to seize a person’s belongings due to medical debt, and requiring hospitals to use the same user-friendly application for financial assistance.
Eighty percent said they supported creating a state-funded health plan that would give residents a more affordable option than commercial plans.
77 percent of voters said they would feel more positive about state elected officials if they passed laws with these measures, and 75 percent said they would be more likely to vote for someone if they passed these laws.
The ongoing discourse on health insurance and ensuring people can afford it is currently shutting down the federal government. The current shutdown is already the second-longest in U.S. history, and Democrats are refusing to budge until a deal is struck to extend extended premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.
“I’m not surprised that health care is at the center of this conversation. Medical debt and health care affordability, you know, are among the few things that Americans actually agree on right now,” Sesso said. “I think they’re not holding their breath to work for Washington and necessarily protect them from medical debt, which is why I think they’re, you know, looking for states to step up.”
For the survey, 1,319 voters in the 2024 general election were included in a 12-minute national survey. The survey was conducted from August 21 to September 2. The results have a margin of error of 3.63 percentage points.
