Most Americans want Congress to concentrate on incremental actions to bring down healthcare costs and to protect patients with preexisting medical conditions rather than pursuing major reform, like Medicare for All, a new poll found.
In a survey of 1,203 U.S. adults, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that 68% of responders said lawmakers should prioritize targeted actions like lowering the costs for prescription medicines — the top priority for Americans.
About 64% ranked safeguarding the Affordable Care Act's preexisting conditions protections as their second-highest priority for Capitol Hill.
Half of the responders said their main concern was protecting patients from surprise medical bills.
Only 31% overall said Congress should prioritize Medicare for All, though that ranked higher for Democrats at 47% in the April 24 Kaiser poll.
On April 30, House Democrats will get their first opportunity to vet a Medicare for All bill at a hearing being convened by the Rules Committee.
The bill was introduced in February by Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and has over 100 co-sponsors, though all of those lawmakers are Democrats.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who is vying to be the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election, unveiled his own Medicare for All bill in the Senate earlier this month — an updated version of a measure he introduced in September 2017.
A January Kaiser poll found that more than half of Americans said they preferred a national single-payer healthcare system, like Medicare for All, over private insurance. But more popular with the poll's responders were options that would let Americans buy into government-run insurance programs, like Medicare and Medicaid.
Drug prices doable?
Like the latest poll, however, the January survey also found that lowering prescription drug costs and ensuring the ACA's preexisting conditions protections remained in place ranked higher among responders' concerns.
During an April 23 event hosted by Time magazine, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was most hopeful Capitol Hill could reach an agreement of some kind with the White House on legislation to rein in drug prices.
"I think we can find a path to do that," she said.
The House and Senate have each held hearings this year on the matter, including sessions that focused specifically on insulin prices.
The new Kaiser poll found that lowering drug prices ranked highest among members of all voting parties — 77% for Democrats, 66% for Republicans and 64% for Independents.
ACA concerns
According to the April 24 poll results, the future of the ACA weighed heavily on responders' minds, particularly in light of an ongoing court battle.
In December 2018, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the entire ACA was unconstitutional, a decision that is being appealed by a group of Democratic attorneys general. The House also was permitted to intervene in the case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is expected to hear oral arguments in July.
The case was brought by Republican attorneys general and governors from 20 states, though Maine and Wisconsin were allowed to withdraw from the suit after Democrats won top jobs in those states.
Rather than defend the ACA, the Trump administration joined the Republican plaintiffs, asking the court to specifically strike down the law's preexisting conditions protections.
But on March 25, the Trump administration shifted its position and told the appeals court it wanted the entire law nixed.
About 68% of the responders in the latest Kaiser poll said they do not want the Supreme Court to invalidate the ACA's preexisting condition protections, while 54% said they do not want the entire healthcare law overturned.
Only 27% of the responders overall said repealing the ACA should be a top priority for Congress, though 52% of the Republicans surveyed said it should be lawmakers' No. 1 goal.