A new poll conducted by Lake Research Partners for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare shows major voter support for expanding Medicare and Social Security. Voters strongly oppose cuts to these programs.
On Medicare, voters almost unanimously support allowing drug price negotiation to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. While this support has been strong for years, it is even stronger today. Most likely, the huge drug price increases, particularly for life-saving medications, is driving this new surge in support.
Voters also strongly oppose raising the age of Medicare eligibility, as Speaker Paul Ryan plans to do. A recent report by Peter Arno for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Foundation shows that raising the Medicare eligibility age would leave as many as 4 million people uninsured if the ACA is repealed.
What’s perhaps most noteworthy in the poll results is that Republicans, Democrats and Independents all overwhelmingly support drug price negotiation, 91% of Republicans and 94% of both Democrats and Independents, with 81% of Republicans strongly favoring it and 85% of both Democrats and Independents strongly favoring it.
Almost two out of three voters (65 percent) oppose raising the age of Medicare eligibility to 67. Three-quarters of Democrats (75 percent) oppose it, along with two-thirds of Independents (65 percent) and more than five in ten (52 percent) Republicans.
Voters across party lines also continue to strongly support expanding Social Security benefits, as well as giving people credit for caring for a family member, and lifting the cap on income for Social Security contributions. Moreover, they oppose raising the Social Security retirement age and means-testing benefits.
Almost three out of four (73 percent) voters support increasing Social Security benefits. Only 19 percent oppose increasing benefits. More than eight in ten (84 percent) Democrats, two in three (66 percent) Republicans, and seven in ten (70 percent) Independents support increasing Social Security benefits.
Most people support paying for the Social Security benefit expansion by lifting the cap on Social Security contributions so that wealthy Americans pay the same rate into Social Security as everybody else. Almost eight in ten (79 percent) voters support this, and almost seven in ten (69 percent) strongly favor this. By party, 86 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans, and 81 percent of Independents favor this policy change.
If you agree that Congress should keep its hands off Medicare, please sign this petition.
Here’s more from Just Care:
Leave a Reply