Kaiser Poll: Americans Want To Build Upon Our Current Health Care System

Most Democrats & Democratic-Leaning Independents Want Congress To Focus On Improving ACA

WASHINGTON – As some Members of Congress and 2020 presidential hopefuls continue to advocate for eliminating the existing underpinnings of American health care and starting over from scratch with a costly, one-size-fits-all Medicare for all system, a new national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that a majority of Americans want elected leaders to focus instead on “targeted actions” to improve and build upon what is working and fix what isn’t.

Kaiser finds that most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents “say they want Democrats in Congress to focus their efforts on improving and protecting the ACA,” while “nearly two-thirds of the public (64 percent), including eight in ten Democrats (82 percent), six in ten independents (62 percent), and half of Republicans (47 percent) … say making sure the ACA’s protections for people with pre-existing health conditions continue is a ‘top priority’ for Congress.”

As previous national polling by Kaiser reveals, Americans don’t support Medicare for all once they understand what it would mean for them, finding that “net favorability drops as low as -44 percentage points when people hear the argument that this would lead to delays in some people getting some medical tests and treatments. Net favorability is also negative if people hear it would threaten the current Medicare program (-28 percentage points), require most Americans to pay more in taxes (-23 percentage points), or eliminate private health insurance companies (-21 percentage points).”