Health

Democrats Increase Trust on Healthcare

Democrats have regained ground when it comes to who voters trust more on healthcare, while Republicans have fallen behind, according to a recent Morning Consult poll.

A December poll found 56 percent of registered voters trust the Democratic Party more on healthcare, while 44 percent said they trust the Republican Party more. Trust in Democrats increased four percentage points from a Morning Consult poll done in March, while trust in Republicans went down four percentage points from the same poll.

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The poll comes as Congress prepares to adjourn its lame-duck session and GOP members strategize how they’ll take on the health reform law now that the party has control of both the House and Senate. Republicans are expected to vote for an outright repeal of the legislations, and then possibly repeal specific provisions of the law, like the medical device tax, the Independent Payment Advisory Board and how the federal government has defined what counts for a full-time employee. The March poll was conducted at the very end of the flawed roll-out of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges.

Morning Consult polling in December found 40 percent of registered voters said they want to see Congress make changes to improve the law, while 22 percent said they want to see Congress repeal it. Eighteen percent said they want to see lawmakers expand the law and 16 percent said they want to see the law take effect. Only four percent said Congress should defund the ACA.

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Women were more likely to trust Democrats over Republicans on health care. Men were evenly split, with 50 percent supporting either party. The GOP, however, had higher trust ratings with older respondents. Fifty-three percent of respondents ages 45-65 trusted Republicans over Democrats most when it comes to health care. Democrats fared best among the 18-29 year olds, with 63 percent saying they trust their party more, compared to only 37 percent trusting Republicans.

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Opinions also varied based on income. Fifty-eight percent of those making under $50,000 trusted Democrats more on health care, while 42 percent trusted the GOP more. Among respondents making more than $100,000, 60 percent said they trusted Democrats when it comes to health issues, while 40 percent trusted Republicans. There was a smaller gap of trust among voters with an income between $50,000 and $100,000. Among those respondents, 51 percent trusted Democrats while 49 percent said they Republicans on this topic.

The December poll was conducted from December 6-9, 2014, among a national sample of 1,385 registered voters. The earlier poll was done from March 9-11, 2014 among a national sample of 2,192 likely voters.

Morning Consult