Tom Zawierucha, 58, a constructing providers employee in New Jersey, needs candidates would discuss extra about defending older Americans from large medical payments.
Teresa Morton, 43, a freight dispatcher in Memphis, Tennessee, with two youngsters, desires to listen to extra about how elected officers would assist working Americans saddled with unaffordable deductibles.
Yessica Gray, 28, a buyer assist consultant in Wisconsin, craves reduction from excessive drug costs and medical payments which have pushed her and her husband deep into debt. “How much are we going to pay?” she mentioned. “It’s just something that’s always on my mind.”
Health care hasn’t figured prominently on this more and more acrimonious presidential marketing campaign. And the economic system has typically topped the listing of voters’ considerations.
But Americans stay intensely nervous about paying for medical care, nationwide surveys present.
Two in 3 U.S. adults in a current nationwide poll by West Health and Gallup mentioned they’re involved a serious well being occasion would land them in debt. An identical share mentioned well being care isn’t getting sufficient consideration within the marketing campaign.
To higher perceive voters’ well being care considerations because the 2024 marketing campaign nears an finish, KFF Health News labored with research firm PerryUndem, which convened a pair of focus teams final week with 16 individuals from throughout the nation. PerryUndem, which paid to arrange the main focus teams, is a nonpartisan agency primarily based in Washington, D.C., that research public views on well being care and different points.
Voters from throughout the nation focus on their well being care considerations forward of the November elections in a spotlight group convened by analysis agency PerryUndem in collaboration with KFF Health News. Many within the group expressed dismay that the candidates haven’t talked extra concerning the large medical payments sufferers face.(Noam N. Levey/KFF Health News)
The focus group members represented a broad swath of the citizens, with some favoring Republican candidates, and others Democrats. But almost all shared a standard criticism: Neither presidential candidate has talked sufficient about how they’d assist individuals struggling to pay for medical care.
“You don’t really hear anything much about health care costs,” mentioned Bob Groegler, 46, who works in residential financing in jap Pennsylvania. Groegler mentioned he’s nervous he could by no means be capable to retire as a result of he received’t manage to pay for to pay his medical payments.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, hasn’t supplied an in depth health care agenda, although he criticizes present legal guidelines and mentioned he has “concepts of a plan” to enhance the 2010 Affordable Care Act, typically known as Obamacare.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, has laid out extra detailed health care proposals, together with constructing on laws signed by President Joe Biden to decrease sufferers’ payments.
In 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which limits how a lot Medicare enrollees should pay out-of-pocket for prescribed drugs, together with a $35 month-to-month cap on insulin. The laws additionally gives further federal help to assist Americans purchase medical insurance by way of the Affordable Care Act, although this help will expire except Congress and the president renew it subsequent 12 months.
Harris has mentioned she is going to increase the help and push for new assistance to Medicare enrollees who want residence care. She additionally has pledged to proceed federal efforts to relieve medical debt, a nationwide downside that burdens about 100 million people.
But a lot of the focus group members mentioned they knew little about these proposals, complaining that hot-button points like abortion have dominated the marketing campaign.
Many additionally expressed deep skepticism that both Harris or Trump would do a lot to lighten the burden of medical payments.
“I believe they’re out of touch with our reality,” mentioned Renata Bobakova, 46, a trainer and mom exterior Cleveland. “We never know when we’ll get sick. We never know when we’ll fall down or sprain an ankle. And prices really can be astronomical. … I’m constantly worried about that.”
Bobakova, who’s from Slovakia, mentioned she went again to Europe to provide delivery to her daughter 10 years in the past to keep away from crippling medical debt she knew she’d incur on this nation. Parents with non-public well being protection face on common more than $3,000 in medical bills associated to a being pregnant and childbirth that aren’t coated by insurance coverage.
Other focus group members mentioned they or individuals they knew had left the nation to get cheaper prescribed drugs. The U.S. has the best medical costs on this planet, research shows.
The focus group members represented a broad swath of the citizens, with some favoring Republican candidates and others Democrats. But almost all shared a criticism: Neither presidential candidate has talked sufficient about how they’d assist individuals struggling to pay for medical care.(Noam N. Levey/KFF Health News)
Several focus group members, reminiscent of Kevin Gaudette, 64, a retired semiconductor engineer in North Carolina, blamed giant hospitals, drug firms, and insurers for blocking efforts to decrease sufferers’ prices to guard their earnings. “I think everybody has their finger in the pie,” Gaudette mentioned.
Martha Chapman, 64, who can be retired and lives in Philadelphia, pointed to what she known as “corporate greed.” “I just don’t think it’s going to change,” she mentioned.
In the closing days of the marketing campaign, that cynicism represents a selected downside for Harris, mentioned PerryUndem co-founder Michael Perry, who led the 2 focus teams.
Harris has tried to differentiate herself because the candidate who’s extra critical about coverage and extra sympathetic to voters’ financial struggles, Perry mentioned. And in current weeks, she’s begun airing new ads highlighting well being care points.
But even focus group members who mentioned they lean Democratic appeared responsible each candidates for not addressing Americans’ well being care considerations. “They’re not feeling listened to,” Perry mentioned.
Many of the members nonetheless continued to precise hope that a problem as necessary as well being care would sometime get the eye of elected officers, no matter political occasion.
“We’re all human beings here. We’re all people just trying to make it,” mentioned Zawierucha, the constructing providers employee in New Jersey. “If we get sick or have to go in and get something done, we should have that peace of mind that we can go in there and not have to worry about paying it off for the next 20 years.”
“Just give us some peace of mind,” he mentioned.
[Clarification: This article was revised at 11:35 a.m. ET on Oct. 24, 2024, to more clearly describe how the focus groups were organized.]
Noam N. Levey:
[email protected],
@NoamLevey
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