Voters Would Not Accept a New Healthcare Proposal That Left Americans Behind
By Sean McElwee (@SeanMcElwee)
The vast majority of voters say it would be unacceptable to pass new healthcare reforms that left people uninsured. In fact, voters would be more dismayed with a health insurance proposal that left Americans uninsured than one that caused people to switch doctors. This creates problems for centrists like Biden, whose plan leaves millions of people uninsured.
In some of our previous research, we found voters are ready to support new policies that help mitigate uncertainty around access to healthcare. Voters report persistent concerns that they may be denied healthcare in the future. They also report uncertainty around important components of their healthcare coverage, including important components of coverage like mental health and catastrophic illness coverage.
To push voters on this question, we asked voters how acceptable or unacceptable new healthcare reform would be depending on how much the status quo would change. In particular, we focused on disruptions that healthcare reform could have on their lives and on their access to care. We asked voters,
If a new healthcare plan was proposed that would help lower costs and increase access to healthcare for Americans, do you think it would be acceptable or unacceptable if that plan...
Still left millions of Americans without health insurance?
Failed to eliminate insurance deductibles or to cap them at a low level?
Eliminated private insurance options?
Caused most Americans to switch doctors?
Did not cover abortion and birth control?
Did not reduce paperwork and hassle for patients?
Did not greatly simplify our healthcare infrastructure by reducing redundant healthcare services and providers?
For each item, voters could report if they felt each possible consequence of new healthcare reform would be very acceptable, somewhat acceptable, somewhat unacceptable, very unacceptable, or if they were unsure. Voters saw the response list in a randomized order.
Fully 68 percent of voters reported they did not think it would be acceptable if the coverage gap persisted -- that is, continued to leave millions of Americans uninsured. In recent state-level polling, Data for Progress found that in states like Virginia where Medicaid expansion is on the ballot, voters are strongly motivated to help expand coverage, and so perhaps this is not surprising.
The partisan divides in what voters would accept or reject are, perhaps, unsurprising. For example, fully 80 percent of Democrats would reject any healthcare reform that endangered access to abortion and other forms of birth control, while just 21 percent of Republican voters would reject such a reform. On this particular issue, Independents are much closer to Democrats, overwhelmingly rejecting any reform that would endanger access to abortion and birth control.
That said, voters overall are united in their dislike of many elements of the present system. They do not view healthcare reform as an acceptable or worthwhile expenditure of effort if it leaves Americans uninsured or does not eliminate redundancies, inefficiencies, and pain points in the system. This closely mirrors our other recent findings showing that, even if voters accept their personal status quo on the question of healthcare insurance, they are eager to reduce the uncertainty they and their fellow Americans face on a daily basis when it comes to accessing and paying for healthcare.
As with our other polling in this area, we’ve found that voters are ready to do away with the most obnoxious parts of the healthcare system. This ranges from lack of coverage to the paperwork headache many people associate with the day to day elements of healthcare.
Sean McElwee (@SeanMcElwee) is a co-founder and the executive director of Data for Progress.
On behalf of Data for Progress, YouGov Blue fielded a survey of 1,005 US registered voters on YouGov’s online panel. The survey fielded from 10/30/19-10/31/19 and was weighted to be representative of the population of registered voters by age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, US Census region, and 2016 Presidential vote choice.