The times are a changin’ and as the Republican Party continues to work diligently to turn our country into some strange dystopian wasteland, the rest of us are interested in spreading some of the wealth we see and hear about everyday. One of those proposals is the Democratically backed Medicare-for-All bill, introduced last September. The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll has found that after a year of our Republican-led country, more and more people want exactly the opposite of what the Republican party is offering.
- This month’s Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds six in ten (59 percent) favor a national health plan, or Medicare-for-all, in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan – including a majority of both Democrats and independents and about one-third of Republicans. Support for such a proposal increases among the overall public (75 percent) and among partisans (87 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans) when framed as an option for anyone who wants it, but people who currently have other forms of coverage can keep the coverage they already have. It is unclear how support would fare if these proposals became part of the larger public debate as previous KFF polling has found the public’s attitudes can be quite malleable.
The Kaiser poll also found that prescription prices was a top concern for people. It also found that sadly, Republicans are willing to be peed on and call it rain.
The majority of Republicans are confident President Trump and his administration will be able to deliver on most of the promises asked about, with one notable exception – ending the prescription painkiller addiction epidemic. Vast majorities of Republicans are confident in President Trump and his administration’s ability to deliver on infrastructure (87 percent) and on immigration reform (80 percent), while about seven in ten are confident in their ability to repeal the ACA (74 percent), lower the cost of prescription drugs (73 percent), and build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico (70 percent). Notably, equal shares of Republicans (49 percent) say they are both confident and not confident that President Trump and his administration will be able to deliver on his promise to end the prescription painkiller addiction epidemic.
However, they do agree that Congress and Trump are not doing enough to bring down the costs of prescription drugs—of course, they believe that the Democrats are equally guilty of not doing enough, even though Republicans control both the House and the Senate. Now more than ever, get out that vote!