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Written by: Eugene Steuerle
A recent Gallup Poll finds 61 percent of Americans worried more about healthcare than anything else these days. The 10-percentage point gap between concerns about health and the economy is large by polling standards and will continue to shape 2026 mid-term election races. The poll was taken in the early stages of the Iran war, so it’s likely some concerns have changed.
Not surprisingly in today’s sharply divided political climate, Democrats are far more worried about healthcare than are Republicans.
“Republicans and Democrats worry about sharply different things,” Gallup reports, “with illegal immigration the chief concern of Republicans, at 55%, followed by federal spending and the budget deficit (47%), drug use (42%), and crime and violence (41%).”
“By contrast, Democrats’ top concerns are healthcare (80%), income/wealth distribution (77%) and the economy (69%).”
The public concerns about these issues have been similar for years, the pollster says, but healthcare has become a relatively more serious concern of late. Gallup does not say why, but higher health insurance premiums, the rising cost of care, and difficulty finding acceptable care surely play a role.
Affordability has become a hot button. On April 10, the government reported a surge in March consumer prices – 3.3 percent higher than a year ago. The increase was caused chiefly by the Iran war. But healthcare costs were 3.7 percent higher than a year ago and are still a problem.
On the same day, the University of Michigan’s monthly consumer sentiment survey for April hit its lowest level in the program’ 70-year history, the Wall Street Journal reported (gift link):
“The darker economic mood was widespread across people of different ages, income levels and political affiliations, said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director. ‘Many consumers blame the Iran conflict for unfavorable changes to the economy,’ she said.
“Hsu added that if this week’s cease-fire holds and allows gas prices to moderate, spirits could rebound. ‘Economic expectations will likely improve after consumers gain confidence that the supply disruptions stemming from the Iran conflict have ended and gas prices have moderated,’” she said.
For seniors and disabled people on Medicare, there is another storm cloud forming.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to toy with automatically enrolling new Medicare users in private Medicare Advantage (MA) insurance plans rather than letting first-time enrollees choose traditional Medicare plans.
Such a proposal was included in Project 2025. In late March, the STAT news service reported that the proposal is being considered by CMS. The full article is behind a paywall. Here are the first two paragraphs:
“President Trump’s Medicare director said . . . his team is considering a policy that would automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage plans, a controversial idea that was touted in the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint.
“Chris Klomp [CMS director of Medicare] said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is mulling the feasibility of models that would either automatically enroll beneficiaries into the private form of Medicare or accountable care organizations, such as those that participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Individuals could still opt into a different insurance arrangement. Right now, people who don’t make a choice are covered by traditional Medicare.”
Although people could opt out of MA into traditional Medicare, the Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA) said a bill has been introduced in the House “that would change the default enrollment to MA, with an opportunity to opt-out, and would mandate that once people are enrolled in an MA plan, they would be unable to disenroll or switch plans for three years. The Center for Medicare Advocacy strongly opposes such administrative and legislative efforts and urges policymakers to both strengthen and keep traditional Medicare as the default.”
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