62% of Americans agree US government should ensure everyone has health coverage
62% of Americans agree US government should ensure everyone has health coverage
The new poll shows the highest level of support in a decade for the government ensuring all Americans have healthcare.
Summary
A Gallup poll shows 62% of Americans believe the government should ensure universal healthcare coverage—the highest support in over a decade.
While Democratic backing remains strong at 90%, support among Republicans and Independents has also grown since 2020.
Public frustration with the for-profit healthcare system has intensified following the arrest of a suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, reportedly motivated by anger at the industry.
Recent controversies, including Anthem’s rollback of anesthesia coverage cuts, and debates over Medicare privatization highlight ongoing dissatisfaction with the system.
Here's the thing... having health coverage doesn't mean jack crap.
I've told my story before, it got best of'd on reddit and such, but it bears repeating why we need Universal Health Care:
tl;dr lost my doctors due to an insurance change 4 weeks in to a 6 week open heart surgery recovery...
In 2018, my company was in the process of being sold. No big deal, above my paygrade, nothing for me to worry about.
Then I got sick right after Thanksgiving. Really bad heartburn that lasted 5 days. It wasn't heartburn. I had a heart attack. 12/3/2018 I had open heart surgery, single bypass, and that started a 6 week recovery clock.
On 1/1/2019, the sale of my company closed and we officially had new owners. I also officially lost all of my doctors because the new employers don't do Kaiser in Oregon. They do it in WA and CA, but each state has to be negotiated and they never had presence here.
1/2/2019 I start working with Aetna to find doctors, hospitals, etc. Beyond the cardiologist I need a new pharmacist, podiatrist, diabetes care and a general "doctor" doctor.
Fortunately, my new employer is a big enough fish, they have their own concierge at Aetna and she gets me into the Legacy Health system.
On 1/3/2019 I start developing complications, but I don't know it at the time. It starts with a cough. All the time. Then, when I try to lay down, like to sleep, I'm drowning, literally choking and gagging.
The concierge and I try to get an appointment, we're told 2-3 months. For a dude still recovering from open heart surgery? Best they could do is 2 weeks. 1/14/2019.
I can't lay down to sleep so I buy a travel neck pillow and sleep sitting up.
I get to see the new doctor at the "official" end of the 6 week recovery. He doesn't know me or my history so he wants to run tests.
I'm sitting at home playing video games and waiting on test results when the call comes... Congestive heart failure. Report to the ER immediately.
My heart developed an irregular heart beat, which caused fluid build up in my chest. They admitted me and were getting ready to pull fluid off me.
"What happened to your foot?"
"I dunno, what happened to my foot? I can't feel my feet."
Remember when I said I was sitting around playing video games, waiting for test results? Yeah, my foot was touching a radiator and I didn't know it. 3rd degree burns, first four toes. Pinkie was spared.
So I'm in the hospital a week. I lose 4 liters of water per day. 50 lbs. of water. No wonder I was drowning. Regular bandage changes.
So now I'm facing two procedures. Electrocardio version to fix my heart, skin grafts to fix my toes.
This whole time the new insurance covers 80% until I reach the out of pocket maximum of $6,500. Then it will cover 100%.
The old insurance? ER visit for heart attack, hospital admission, 8 days in the hospital, open heart bypass... $250. $100 for meds and all the oxygen bottles I can carry.
So we hit the out of pocket maximum almost immediately. My wife had a problem with her foot running through the Seattle airport. The doctor who did her toe amputation was decided to be out of network so that was another $1,100.
I was never unemployed through all this. I had enough vacation and sick time banked to cover it. Cobra didn't apply. Continuity of care didn't apply because the new hospital DID have a cardiac department. Buying my old insurance wasn't an option, it was far too expensive without employer backing. Income is too high for assistance (thank god) and I took steps to max out my HSA account, which is good because we drained it twice.
Three 1 week hospital stays (2 for me, 1 for my wife), multiple ER visits, two more major medical procedures... That would be enough to break most people even with good insurance.
So if you read any of that, let me ask you something... Why does the quality of my health care and my quality of life have to depend on who I work for and what insurance companies they choose to work with?
How is it only 62%?! Who actually looks at their medical bill and thinks, "Yep, this is accurate and absolutely worth every penny"? I have health insurance, and I still avoid going to the doctor unless I’m practically dying because I simply can’t afford it.
And yet, I’m stuck paying nearly $10k a year for insurance—just in case something catastrophic happens—only to still face massive copays, out-of-pocket costs, and coverage denials. It’s completely counterintuitive.
The system is broken.
Screw the insurance industry.
Screw the state of medical care in the U.S.Healthcare shouldn’t be a privilege—it’s a human right. Normalize that.
too bad it only matters what the 1% want. can't wait to see what those 62% will do when their retirement money gets pillaged too. spoiler alert: nothing
That's nearly 2/3 of Americans, a pretty strong majority. Those other 38% of Americans can go fuck themselves, right along with the corporate oligarchs they worship.
I tried to explain to a luddite like 10 years ago that their healthcare costs would go down. He said he doesn't care, he doesn't want to pay for someone else's healthcare. He had insurance through work. I tried explaining to him that THAT'S the whole point of insurance, you pay for other people's healthcare, you're not just paying into an account that you then draw from. Your premium goes to someone else's cancer treatment. He said I didn't understand insurance. Dude had 3 kids too. So his healthcare costs proportionally to mine would have been waaayyy lower.
Like, it's a no brainer.
Too late with the Orange Man in the White House...
What was that figure like before that fella got shot?
What % of Congress agrees? There's lots of stuff the public wants that Congress doesn't get lobbied to get. Health insurance companies spent $113 million on lobbying Congress JUST in 2024. Until the public can pony up that kind of money, Congress is going to listen to their masters.
Wish granted. $100k deductible for all. GiGa subsidies for insurance corporations.
"We did it Patrick, we did Healthcare reform!" - democrats probably
Also an important statistic left out of the summary: support among Republicans has grown to 32%
(which is still a hilariously low number, of course)
edit: I was curious so I checked the data in the source of the article, and I had ChatGPT do the math, and it came up with this: (0.33x0.9) + (0.25 x 0.32) + (0.42x0.65) = 62% support = 33% democrats, 25% republicans, 42% independants. That seems about right, even though the latest presidential elections didn't indicate that, oof.
Too bad they did not vote that way cause who knows how many are going to lose coverage in the coming years.
Until the USA can cap healthcare costs, shit ain't gonna happen. Every single legal resident in the USA should have the same healthcare as the politicians.
62% seems low.
Universal healthcare won't help if it isn't decently funded. That is the complexity. Some existing Universal healthcare places are struggling because the gov wants to negotiate lower prices. So the kids that potentially would be in healthcare go elsewhere. That leads to long wait times and such. So we need both, Universal healthcare, and a way to be sure to fund it such that we attract good professionals
Free healthcare for all!
I'm glad americans don't have health insurance. They don't deserve it. When my people wanted health insurance, they striked, protested and got shot at until they got it.
All the yanks talk about is about how next time the rich old white dude will save them. Suckers. Their country is based on slavery. They are a country of slaves.