With the November midterms on the horizon, one thing is crystal clear: Americans are sick of the rising costs of health care. Over one year ago, Trump and Republicans in Congress ransacked over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. As if that wasn’t catastrophic enough, they then ripped away the tax credits that over 22 million people relied on to see a doctor. As a result of high costs, working families are taking on medical debt, skipping doctor’s appointments, or foregoing their coverage. Now, from coast to coast, working families have been plunged into a health care affordability crisis.
The TLDR:
- According to KFF, the cost of health care is the top concern for families going into November’s midterms, with over half of voters considering it extremely important for candidates to discuss health care costs.
- Gallup found that one in four U.S. workers are staying in jobs they would rather leave in order to keep their health insurance.
- JG Wentworth reported that nearly one in three Americans has a medical condition that has worsened because they could not afford medication.
Zoom In: Nationwide Polling Shows Working Families Are Sick of Paying More and Getting Less
🚨Polling from the Commonwealth Fund Reveals that Health Care Affordability Is the Top Concern for Americans.
- Health care affordability is the dominant concern that Americans want improved or solved in the health care system.
- 51 percent of Americans believe the federal government is best able to solve the problem of the cost of premiums for health insurance.
🚨More Than Half of Voters Say It Is “Extremely Important” for Candidates to Address Health Care Costs
- 6 in 10 adults say they are worried or very worried about affording health insurance for themselves or their families.
- Over half of voters say that it is “extremely important” for candidates to talk about health care costs and 48 percent believe the same for the future of Medicare.
- Over 70 percent of voters say ensuring that Medicaid eligible people have access to care is a higher priority than preventing fraud.
- A majority of voters believe that delaying funding to states that are accused of mismanaging Medicaid is likely to cause people to lose health care.
🚨JG Wentworth Shows that High Costs Are Leading Americans to Delay Care and Take On Debt.
- More than 75 percent of uninsured Americans said a $600 doctor’s visit would put them in financial hardship.
- More than 85 percent of respondents have medical debt.
- Nearly 1 in 3 people have a medical condition that has worsened, because they could not afford medication.
- More than nine in ten insured Americans have delayed or avoided medical care due to cost.
🚨Polling from Gallup Highlights that One in Four U.S. Workers Stay in Unwanted Jobs for Health Insurance.
- About 23 million Americans say they are remaining in their current job, even though they want to leave, so they can keep their health insurance.
- Half of Americans reported having trouble consistently paying for their health care and prescription drugs.
- People with one or more chronic health conditions are 12 percent more likely to stay in their job for health insurance than those without.
🚨Families USA: 94% of Americans Say Congress Must Act on Health Care Costs.
- 94 percent of Americans believe it is important for the President and Congress to take action to lower health care costs.
- 81 percent of respondents believe that fees and prices charged by hospitals are unreasonable.
- 58 percent believe that hospital consolidations will increase prices and not improve care, compared to 6 percent that believe prices will decrease and care will get better.