VOTER VITALS III – A Health Care Tracking Poll

National Tracking Poll Shows Declining Support For Government-Controlled Health Insurance Systems

MEMORANDUM 

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Lauren Crawford Shaver, The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future
RE: VOTER VITALS III – A Health Care Tracking Poll
DATE: March 11, 2020

The third edition of Voter Vitals – a tracking poll conducted nationwide and in 2020 battleground states by Locust Street Group for the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future – finds “that health care remains the defining issue of the 2020 presidential election.  A supermajority of voters prefer to build on and improve our current health care system rather than replace it with something new.  In fact, a majority of voters are less likely to vote for lawmakers who support creating a Medicare for All system in the U.S.”

“The vast majority of Americans are not willing to pay any more in taxes or give up their current health care coverage in favor of new government-controlled health insurance systems.  American voters want lawmakers and candidates to focus on lowering costs and improving what we have today – not start over with a one-size-fits-all system,” said Phillip Morris, Partner of Locust Street Group.

The second edition of Voter Vitals was conducted in November and can be viewed HERE. 

The first edition of Voter Vitals was conducted in August and can be viewed HERE. 

Key findings of the survey, which is the third edition of Voter Vitals include:

• Lowering COSTS (73 percent) is the top health care priority for American voters.
• More voters support FIXING what we have today (62 percent support) than the public option (44 percent support) and Medicare for All (40 percent support).
• 66 percent of voters would rather BUILD ON our current health care system than replace it with something new.
• 64 percent of voters believe PRIVATE COVERAGE should continue to exist and have a role in our health care system.
• 53 percent of voters would be LESS likely to vote for a lawmaker who supports creating a Medicare for All system. 
• 72 percent of voters are UNWILLING to pay any more for health care and 66 percent are UNWILLING to pay any more in taxes for universal coverage.

Methodology:

• N=1,000 voters nationwide plus n=500-voter oversamples in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
• Balanced to U.S. demographics by gender, age, race, income, political ideology and health coverage.
• Fielded online from February 18-26, 2020.
• National MOE: +/- 3%; State OS MOE: +/- 4%.

The third edition of Voter Vitals tracks closely with other recent national polling:

• A recent poll from Morning Consult and the Bipartisan Policy Center finds that “[i]mproving the current health-care system received the most support among voters, far more than repealing Obamacare or adopting ‘Medicare-for-All,” Bloomberg reports.  
• Recent polls in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin from Third Way “reveal that voters are deeply skeptical about Medicare for All” and “think Medicare for All will lead to middle-class tax hikes and lower quality of care.” 
• This tracks closely with another recent poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cook Political Report finds that nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of swing voters in the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin rate Medicare for All as a “bad idea.”
• A recent poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) finds “support for a public option is slipping,” POLITICO reports.  The poll also finds that Medicare for All “support wanes when voters hear trade-offs,” Becker’s Hospital Review adds.
• Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) CEO Drew Altman wrote in Axios that support for Medicare for All is “headed in the wrong direction” – meaning down – while “polling shows that support drops much further, and opposition rises, when people hear some of the most common arguments against Medicare for All.” 
• A national poll from Quinnipiac University, finds that “Medicare for All has grown increasingly unpopular among all American voters,” with a majority saying it’s a “bad idea.”  Medicare for All is “a real problem for … candidates.  Not just because of the cost, but because few swing voters want to dump private health insurance,” Axios adds. 
• POLITICO has noted that polls show “growing opposition to ‘Medicare for All,’” while national poll released by Kaiser in September “probes Democrats’ views about the general approaches to expanding health coverage and lowering costs” and finds that “[m]ost Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (55%) say they prefer a candidate who would build on the Affordable Care Act to achieve those goals.  Fewer (40%) prefer a candidate who would replace the ACA with a Medicare-for-all plan.”

To read Locust Street’s executive summary of the survey findings, CLICK HERE.

To read Locust Street’s complete survey analysis, CLICK HERE. 

To view the second edition of Voter Vitals, CLICK HERE. 

To view the first edition of Voter Vitals, CLICK HERE. To learn more about the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, CLICK HERE.