Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Nearly half of Americans don’t believe the incoming Trump administration will reduce health care costs, according to a new Gallup poll.
The survey, conducted after the presidential election, found that 48 percent of Americans are pessimistic about the new administration’s ability to lower health care costs, while 45 percent feel the same way about prescription drug costs .
But much of public opinion is colored by partisanship. The poll found that 84 percent of Democrats said they think any future policies from the Trump administration on health care costs are headed in the wrong direction, along with nearly half of independents.
At the same time, nearly three-quarters of Republicans said they believe the country is headed in the right direction on health care costs.
Fewer than 40 percent of Americans said access to affordable health care and affordable mental health care in the United States will improve in the next five years, while more than 60 percent said it is not likely that it gets better
The poll shows how a change in political leadership has affected people’s views.
General pessimism about future access to affordable health care hasn’t changed since the election, but the partisan divide has. Before the election, 57 percent of Democrats believed that access to affordable care was very or somewhat likely to improve in the next five years, compared with just a third of Republicans.
In the most recent survey, the numbers were reversed; more than seven in 10 Republicans said they thought access to affordable health care and mental health care would likely improve, while only one in 10 Democrats said the same.
But overall, the average American adult is pessimistic about the new administration’s health care policies aimed at cutting costs.
Health care took a backseat to President-elect Trump’s campaign, and he had no specific plans for how he would lower health care costs. Polls showed voters cared far more about the economy and immigration than health care.
One of the biggest struggles for health care could make health insurance even more expensive. Enhanced tax credits that help people pay ObamaCare premiums are set to expire this year, and many Republicans oppose extending them.
The survey was conducted in partnership with West Health, a family of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations focused on health care and aging. It was conducted online from November 11 to 18 among 3,583 adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points for the full sample.
