New survey data released Monday shows just 12% of Americans think healthcare in the United States is handled “extremely” or “very” well, further evidence of the deep unpopularity of a profit-driven system that has left roughly 30 million without insurance coverage and contributed to the country’s stunning decline in life expectancy.
The new Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds that 56% of the U.S. public believe healthcare in general is handled “not too well” or “not at all well,” while 32% believe healthcare is handled “somewhat well.”
In all, just 1 in 10 Americans feel the U.S. healthcare system as a whole and healthcare for older adults are handled well or extremely well.
“The poll reveals that public satisfaction with the U.S. healthcare system is remarkably low, with fewer than half of Americans saying it is generally handled well,” AP notes. “The poll shows an overwhelming majority of Americans, nearly 8 in 10, say they are at least moderately concerned about getting access to quality healthcare when they need it.”
The survey results will come as no surprise to those who have attempted to navigate the byzantine U.S. healthcare system to obtain basic care, which often comes at such prohibitively high costs that millions each year are forced to skip treatments to avoid financial ruin as insurance giants and pharmaceutical companies rake in huge profits.
The AP/NORC findings, based on interviews with 1,505 U.S. adults between July 28 and August 1, 2022, show that just 6% feel prescription drug costs are handled well or extremely well in the U.S., where pharmaceutical firms have broad authority to set prices as they please.
As for potential solutions to the country’s longstanding healthcare crises, the new poll shows that “about two-thirds of adults think it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage, with adults ages 18 to 49 more likely than those over 50 to hold that view.”
“The percentage of people who believe healthcare coverage is a government responsibility has risen in recent years, ticking up from 57% in 2019 and 62% in 2017,” AP notes.
More specifically, the survey shows just 40% for a “single-payer healthcare system that would require Americans to get their health insurance from a government plan.” Depending on how the question is framed and phrased, single-payer — more commonly called Medicare for All — has polled as high as 70% support.
According to the AP-NORC survey, 58% “say they favor a government health insurance plan that anyone can purchase” — a public option.
Recent research shows that a Medicare for All system of the kind proposed in new legislation introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) could have prevented hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. over the past two years.
“In the richest country in the world, no one should die or go into debt just because they don’t have access to healthcare,” Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted last week. “We need Medicare for All now.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy