Affordable health care tops ‘worry list’: Gallup poll

Fifty-five percent of Americans worry a “great deal” about finding affordable health care, according to a Gallup poll Monday that says the issue tops a list of more than a dozen problems facing the country.

The availability and affordable of health care edges out issues like crime and violence, federal spending and budget deficits and the availability of guns, at 51 percent each.

Gallup says this is the fifth year in a row that health care has been first or tied for first among the issues on its worry list. The economy is typically a leading issue, too, though it is toward the bottom of the list, alongside illegal immigration, with 34 percent saying they worry a great deal about each issue.

“Health care has been a common concern for Americans, with the percentage worrying a great deal about it eclipsing most other issues over the past two decades. Passage of the Affordable Care Act did little to ease anxiety about the issue — and with President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress taking steps to undo key provisions of the law, Americans’ anxiety about the health care situation should persist,” Gallup said.

Health care is likely to feature in a pivotal mid-term election cycle this year, as Congress and Mr. Trump pitch ways to shore up an individual market beset by rising premiums, beat back a devastating opioid epidemic and bring down soaring prescription-drug prices.

Republicans last year failed to repeal and replace Obamacare with something better, as promised, though they did repeal its “individual mandate” to hold insurance as part of their tax overhaul.

Democrats say the move, coupled with Mr. Trump’s regulatory moves to expand options for healthier consumers, will “sabotage” the market and increase premiums and anger voters. They pointed to Virginians who cited health care as a top issue as they delivered sweeping victories to Democrats last fall.

Some liberal members are looking beyond their 2010 law and touting a government-run, single-payer system as the best way forward.

“Democrats’ especially high concern about health care could make it a mobilizing issue for the party as it seeks to win control of Congress this fall,” Gallup said.

Republicans said Democrats had a chance to stabilize Obamacare by authorizing “cost-sharing” payments to insurers and a reinsurance program that subsidizes pricey customers in the individual market, only to balk at pro-life language that would ban new tax dollars from subsidizing insurance that covers abortion.

Senior GOP lawmakers accused Democrats of wanting a political talk point — Republican sabotage — more than a solution to the wobbly markets.