Since the Republicans of the Congress weighs important cuts in Medicaid, most voters do not want to see the financing of the public health plan reappeared, according to a survey released on Friday by Kff, a non -partisan health research company.
Only 17 % of interviewees said they had supported cuts in Medicaid, the government’s health insurance program that covers over 70 million people. Forty percent said he wanted to continue spending unchanged and 42 percent said he would have liked to increase.
But at the same time, the survey found significant support for some policies that would limit the program, such as the need to work the members. More than 60 percent of the voters – and 47 percent of the Democrats – supported a work requirement, found the survey.
It is estimated that that change, which has been supported by some Congress Republicans, will cut about $ 100 billion by Medicaid, since those who were unemployed – or could not present the documents that show that they have a job – would no longer be covered. The cost of the program was $ 584 billion in 2024, or about 8 % of total federal expenditure.
The survey also illustrated the wide scope of Medicaid, with just over half of the interviewees who affirmed that at some point it or a family member had a medical coverage. There was almost a universal agreement that Medicaid counted for the local communities of the voters, with 98 % of the Democrats and 94 % of the Republicans who claimed to believe that it was in some way or very important.
The Republicans at the congress are taking into consideration several changes to Medicaid while looking for ways to pay the tax cuts of President Trump. Last month, the Chamber approved a budget which, if approved by the Senate and signed by the President, could cut up to $ 880 billion from the program in the next decade. This could happen with the work requirements, limits on federal spending for the program or reducing the share of the costs that the federal government pays.
Although the interviewees of the survey were generally in favor of the work requirements, they had wrong ideas on politics: the sixty -two percent of the voters thought that most of the medicaid members were not unemployed, when in reality a vast majority has jobs.
Republican voters also expressed an opening of funding for the expansion of Medicaid Act Affordable Care. At this moment, the federal government pays 90 percent of costs for participants in expansion, which tend to be healthy adults. This is a higher share than that which covers for other members, such as children or disabled people.
Sixty-four percent of republican voters-and 40 percent of voters in general-they declared to support the reduction of the contribution of the federal government to the expansion of Medicaid. The republicans of the Chamber continue to weigh this option, even if the speaker Mike Johnson declared last week that he was not on the table.
The opinions of the voters on the reduction of the financing of the expansion of Medicaid seemed malleable, however, faced with more information.
When more information on politics were provided to the interviewees, including the fact that millions of people could lose coverage, republican support went down to 43 percent. But he was told that the change would reduce the federal expenditure of about $ 600 billion has increased support for 73 percent.
The survey seems similar to what the Americans tried during the debate on the repeal of the law on care at affordable prices in 2017, when the Republicans were unable to restore the law largely due to the political opposition to the Medicoid cuts. At the time, 70 percent of the voters supported the work requirements and 36 % favored the cut of the financing of medical expansion.
“Medicaid is a very popular program between a vast band of the public, including Republicans,” said Mollyann Brodie, KFF executive director.
But, he added, “opinions could quickly be moved in the context of the debate in which people learn more information and feel that their coverage is threatened”.