More Americans now worry about paying for healthcare than housing or anything else

Even with $2 trillion (!) a year in taxpayer funding for Medicare and Medicaid, Americans fear the crushing cost of medical treatments, a new poll finds.

The top financial worry for Americans is no longer housing, food, or transportation.

It’s medicine.

A poll out today from KFF, a health policy group, finds 32 percent of Americans are “very worried” about paying for healthcare for themselves and their families. Another 34 percent are “somewhat worried.” Only 12 percent said they aren’t worried at all.

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(You know what everyone CAN afford? The truth. For pennies a day, the news and analysis you need.)

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In contrast, only 23 percent of people are “very worried” about rent or mortgage payments, while 17 percent are “very worried” about the cost of transportation.

And Americans (correctly) expect the problem of medical costs will only worsen over the next year, the poll found. The problem crosses party lines, with Democrats, Republicans, and independents all worried about how they will pay for medical care.

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(Worried sick over medical costs)

SOURCE

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Historically, voters have trusted Democrats more than Republicans on healthcare issues. This poll found that Democrats still have an edge.

Strikingly, though, many voters didn’t trust either party. Among independents, 43 percent said they believed “neither” party would address healthcare costs, compared to 35 percent who favored Democrats and 15 percent who preferred Republicans.

All of this suggests that healthcare costs may be a potent issue in the 2026 midterms and (making the very safe assumption that nothing changes) the 2028 presidential election.

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The Democratic strategy on healthcare is clear and has not changed for decades. Mainstream Democrats view healthcare as a winning issue for their party.

Until they run out of money at the state and federal level, they are happy to throw more money into the current system and use Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies to expand insurance coverage. They’ll blame insurance and drug company profiteering (which are real but a small part of the system’s overall crisis) for any problems.

Republicans and President Trump have three choices.

They can dodge the issue, focus on specific instances of fraud in the system, and hope to win on other topics.

They can kick the problem down the road by agreeing to Democratic and media pleading to increase subsidies.

Or they can make a coherent case that they believe the current system is unsustainable and stand up to all its players, including Big Pharma and device manufacturers, insurance and hospital companies, health-care unions, public health bureaucracies, and “medical entrepreneurs” who spend their lives gaming reimbursement rules.

I have no idea if Republicans are willing even to consider such a radical move, given the financial risks and political costs of revamping the current system. (Democrats certainly won’t. They would only consider going the other way, with a full Medicare-for-all strategy.)

But as KFF’s pollster told the Washington Post, “this year it seems that health care affordability is going to move voters… the country is looking for someone to take on health care costs.”

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(Taking on the medical leviathan, with your help.)

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The bipartisan Washington consensus on healthcare is that Americans dislike the current system but will not tolerate radical changes to it. (Underlying that consensus is the unspoken reality that healthcare companies, hospital and drug companies in particular, are deeply powerful and entrenched in Washington.)

Then again, President Trump rode to power a decade ago by smashing the bipartisan Washington consensus on immigration. Trump has other priorities and is unlikely to focus on the problems in American medicine going forward.

But this poll suggests that a politician who can find a simple, powerful way to talk to voters about it — as Trump did on immigration by promising to build a wall at the southern border — may find it unexpectedly potent.