Poll: Democrats Say They Are Hearing Enough From Presidential Candidates About Medicare-for-All and Expanding Coverage, But Want Them to Talk More about Health Costs and Women’s Health Care
More Seniors Trust Democrats than Republicans on Medicare, Drug Costs and Other Health Issues; Large Majority of Public Initially Favors Government Drug Price Negotiations, But Counterarguments Dampen Support
Heading into tonight’s Democratic primary debate, most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the candidates are spending the right amount or too much time talking about ways to provide coverage to more Americans and Medicare-for-all, two topics that have dominated health care discussions in the past three rounds of Democratic debates, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll* finds.
In contrast, large shares of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that the presidential candidates are spending too little time on other health care issues such as women’s health care, including reproductive health services (58%), surprise medical bills (52%), and lowering the amount people pay for health care (50%).
Medicare-for-all and other approaches to expand public coverage have gotten substantial attention at prior debates, and critics have focused their attacks on Medicare-for-all, which would create a single government health plan that would cover all Americans.
Amidst this attention, the new poll finds about half (51%) of the public now favors a Medicare-for-all plan, down 5 percentage points since April. Nearly as many (47%) now oppose a Medicare-for-all plan, up significantly since April (38%).
The poll also finds more than seven in 10 (73%) now favor a government-run “public option” plan available to all Americans that would compete with private health insurers, while one in four (24%) are opposed.
More Americans, Including Seniors, Trust Democrats than Republicans on Health Care
President Trump warned seniors in an Oct. 3 speech in Florida that Democrats would harm their health care. Fielded after the President’s speech, the poll finds more seniors trust the Democratic Party than the Republican Party on health care overall (45% v. 35%), as well as on making sure seniors can get needed care (49% v. 33%), and lowering drug costs (46% v. 34%).
The broader public also trust Democrats more than Republicans on health care overall (44% v. 29%), as well as on the future of Medicare (47% v. 35%), making sure seniors can get needed care (51% v. 32%), and lowering drug costs (49% v. 30%).
Not surprisingly, majorities of partisans trust their own party to do a better job on each of these issues. Independents are more likely to trust the Democrats than Republicans, though about a third (32%) say they don’t trust either party when it comes to handling health care.
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