Nearly a third of American voters are worried they will not be able to pay for their healthcare costs in the upcoming year, and most think reducing costs should be a high priority for the next president, according to a new survey.
The NBC News/Commonwealth Fund survey, released Thursday, also showed most people believe a Democrat president will make healthcare more affordable.
According to the results:
- 31% were worried about being able to afford their health insurance in the next 12 months.
- 29% feared not having enough money to pay for out-of-pocket prescription drug costs.
- 32% feared not being able to afford other out-of-pocket costs.
Meanwhile, more than half of the likely voters said they are very or somewhat confident a Democrat president will make healthcare more affordable:
- 54% said a Democrat will make healthcare cheaper.
- 42% said President Donald Trump, if re-elected, will lower healthcare prices.
- 85% of Democrats said a Democrat will make prices less.
- 85% of Republicans had confidence in Trump.
In other numbers, 1 in 5 said they had trouble paying medical bills over the past two years and had to rely on outside money from savings or family or friends to make up the difference, including:
- 46% said they used savings or retirement funds.
- 46% said they had borrowed money from family or friends.
- 34% took on credit card debt.
- 26% said sold jewelry or furniture.
- 7% said they used crowdsourcing.
The poll was conducted Jan. 28-Feb. 16 among 2,303 U.S. adults and carried an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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