Nearly half of Americans don’t believe that the incoming Trump administration will lower health costs, according to a new Gallup poll.
The research, conducted after the presidential election, found 48 percent of Americans are pessimistic about the new administration’s ability to lower healthcare costs, while 45 percent feel the same about prescription drug costs.
But much of the public’s opinion is colored by partisanship. The poll found 84 percent of Democrats said they think any future policy from the Trump administration on health costs is headed in the wrong direction, along with nearly half of independents.
At the same time, nearly three-quarters of Republicans said they think the country is headed in the right direction on health costs.
Under 40 percent of Americans said access to affordable healthcare and to affordable mental healthcare in the U.S. will improve in the next five years, while over 60 percent said neither is likely to improve.
The poll shows how a change in political leadership has impacted people’s views.
The overall pessimism about future access to affordable healthcare hasn’t changed since the election, but the partisan divide has. Before the election, 57 percent of Democrats believed access to affordable care was very or somewhat likely to improve in the next five years, compared with only about a third of Republicans.
In the most recent poll, the numbers were flipped; more than seven in 10 Republicans said they thought access to affordable healthcare and mental healthcare is likely to improve, while only one in 10 Democrats said so.
But overall, the average American adult is pessimistic about the new administration’s healthcare policies aimed at reducing cost.
Health care took a back seat in President-elect Trump’s campaign, and he did not have specific plans about how he would lower health costs. Polling showed that voters cared far more about the economy and immigration than health care.
One of the biggest upcoming health care fights could make health insurance even more expensive. Enhanced tax credits that help people afford ObamaCare premiums will expire this year, and many Republicans are opposed to extending them.
The poll was conducted in partnership with West Health, a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations focused on healthcare and aging. It was conducted online Nov. 11-18 among 3,583 adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points for the full sample.
