Axios reports that its latest poll finds that Americans want affordable health care. They say they will vote for candidates who advocate for policies that will lower their health care costs, particularly their drug costs and their insurance premiums. That said, it might not affect who they vote for.
Republicans and Democrats alike have ideas about how to lower health care costs. Republicans tend to believe that people get too much health care, driving up health care spending and insurance premiums. Their solution is to make health care less affordable, effectively to allow insurers to offer less comprehensive coverage with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. This solution leaves people who need health care unable to afford the deductibles and copays and people who don’t need health care with lower out-of-pocket costs.
Some Democrats want Congress to reinstate the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that the Republicans in Congress allowed to expire. That would bring down insurance premiums for many people in ACA state health exchange plans. But, it would not address the major underlying drivers of high health care costs–the prices. So, overall health care costs would continue to rise significantly, even with expanded subsidies.
A majority of Americans like the idea of direct sales of prescription drugs, and they’d like TrumpRx and GoodRx to expand their offerings. These platforms have not brought down drug prices meaningfully in most cases. They still allow the pharmaceutical manufacturers to hold their monopoly pricing power and profit handsomely.
Americans also believe that it is the government’s responsibility to guarantee them access to health care. They cannot do this on their own. Who knows what that will lead policymakers to do about health care affordability. If they don’t regulate prices, however, health care will remain unaffordable to tens of millions of Americans.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Poll: Six in ten Americans worry about how they will get the health care they need
- If commercial insurers paid hospitals Medicare rates, spending would drop 31 percent
- Trump’s “deals” with drugmakers result in higher prices
- One-third of drugs on TrumpRx cost more than in UK
- Health care prices will continue rising until they are regulated
