A survey released this week found that improving the affordability and access to health care is a top priority for Americans, with participants across party lines saying they see the federal government as having a key role in this issue.
The survey was conducted by Gallup and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, and participants were asked to rank public health issues in terms of importance. The issues included improving health care access and affordability; ensuring safe water and food; strengthening safety net programs; and reducing chronic diseases.
Among those surveyed, 25 percent ranked improving health care access and affordability as their top health care issue while 52 percent overall listed it as among their top three issues.
Ensuring safe water and food ranked second, with 18 percent listing it as their top priority, followed by reducing chronic diseases at 11 percent. Among those who chose access and affordability as a top priority, 75 percent said the federal government would be better for addressing this issue than state governments.
“We see across party lines, for the top issues that Americans were concerned about, they see a strong federal role in addressing them,” Stephen Patrick, professor and chair of the Rollins School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management, told The Hill. “For us, that was a bit of a surprise.”
Across party lines, 32 percent of Democrats ranked improving access and affordability as their top health care issue while 24 percent of Republicans ranked food and water safety.
“One thing that I take away from that is that Americans are fairly pessimistic that we’ve made substantial ground on any of those issues,” Patrick noted. “Not a single issue garnered more than 50 percent support, but there were a few issues where most Americans think we’ve lost ground, and one of them is the opioid crisis.”
The survey found a divergence when it came to what people considered to be trusted sources for health information. For Republicans, 56 percent pointed to doctors, nurses and other health care practitioners as their top trusted sources while most Democrats, 60 percent, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was their top source, followed by health care practitioners.
“I think what we’re seeing in the survey, and certainly what we all feel, is that you know nothing quite replaces that one-on-one communication, right?” Patrick said. “We still see a substantial role for again CDC here in relaying information.”
Some subgroups were also more likely to choose social media as a top trusted source for public health information. This included 16 percent of adults aged 18 to 29; 16 percent of non-Hispanic Black people; 13 percent of people who attained a high school education or less; and 12 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning men.
The survey was conducted Dec. 2-15, 2024, with a sample size of 2,121 adults over the age of 18. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
