Voters perceive the U.S. healthcare system as deeply flawed, even as the majority of them report they’re satisfied with what they have, according to a survey released Wednesday by RealClear Opinion Research.
The poll, which surveyed 2,000 people, found that 72% of voters are largely happy with the overall quality of their healthcare, with 20% rating is as “excellent,” 52% rating it as “good,” 22% rating it as “fair,” and only 6% rating it as “poor.”
The results suggest that candidates risk running afoul of public opinion by calling for sweeping overhauls of the healthcare system, such as the ‘Medicare for all’ plan backed by many Democratic presidential candidates.
But there were also findings suggesting the public is open to change. When voters were asked about the “overall quality of healthcare other Americans receive today.” It found 39% rated it as “fair,” 16% said it was “poor,” 34% said it was “good,” and 10% rated it as “excellent.”
“Healthcare will be an overarching issue from this point forward to 2020,” said John Della Volpe, polling director for RealClear Opinion Research and co-founder of SocialSphere Inc., a public opinion and analytics firm. “The debate will be on the size, shape, and timetable associated with those reforms.”
The poll, conducted from April 30 to May 5, helps to inform how voters are feeling about different policy issues as politicians in Washington, D.C., gear up for the 2020 elections. Healthcare ranked at the top of policy concerns among the largest plurality of voters, at 36%, ahead of the economy, the environment, education, foreign policy, and immigration.
Voters’ perceptions about the healthcare system influenced what they believed politicians should do about it, but the majority said they didn’t want a complete overhaul of the medical system in the U.S. The largest plurality of voters, 39%, said they wanted the current system to improve, while 28% said an entirely new system was needed. A slightly higher percentage than that, 29%, said the system was “good, but not perfect; we need to continually make improvements.”
Only 4% said no significant changes were needed. Further, price was a concern for people, with the survey showing that 44% of respondents said they or their family were financially burdened by health costs despite the majority of voters saying their healthcare was adequate.
“Despite the fact that a significant amount of Americans are satisfied with the quality of the care that they receive, there is concern about the care that others receive and there is concern about the cost of that care,” Della Volpe said.
Heading into the 2020 elections, candidates are likely to face many questions about their healthcare proposals. President Trump has said that he wants Republicans to be the “party of healthcare,” and has asked Republicans to try again to repeal Obamacare if they win in 2020, but to have an alternative ready. His administration is also asking the courts to undo the healthcare law as a result of Congress zeroing out the fine on the uninsured in the GOP tax law, saying Obamacare can’t survive without it.
“A political party that has no answer to healthcare is not addressing voters’ concerns,” Carl Cannon, Washington bureau chief of RealClearPolitics, said in a phone call with reporters about his takeaway on the survey.
“I don’t think that just calling ‘Medicare for all’ ‘socialized medicine,’ or just saying, ‘Obamacare was sold to us on phony pretext,’ is going to be enough,” he added, referring to what the Republican political strategy has been on healthcare.
House Democrats, meanwhile, have been working to shore up and expand Obamacare, and presidential candidates are focused on more expansive overhauls of the system. One proposal backed by several senators running for the Democratic nomination, and long championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would roll everyone living in the United States into a government health plan that would be an expansion of Medicare.
The survey from RealClearPolitics asked voters about the issue, saying, “Do you support or oppose Medicare for All, which is a system that will eliminate all private health insurance companies, and where all Americans, not just older ones, get health insurance through the government’s Medicare system?”
To that question, 55% of voters were in support and 34% opposed. Later in the survey, however, half of voters admitted they weren’t well informed about the policy, while 23% called themselves “very well informed.” That lack of understanding will create an opening for industry groups who oppose the proposal and to Republicans.
The survey did not note that the Medicare for All Act in Congress does not offer the same coverage as Medicare, but goes much further in saying that it would cover all medical goods and services through taxes, with the exception of cosmetic surgery. The current Medicare system is more limited and people still buy supplemental coverage or coverage run by private health insurers.
