September 14, 2022:- According to an article by Jake Johnson in Common Dreams, new survey data released Monday reveals just 12% of Americans think healthcare in the United States is regulated “extremely” or “very” well, further evidence of the profound unpopularity of a profit-driven system that has left around 30 million without insurance coverage and contributed to the nation’s stunning decline in life expectancy.
The new Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll discovers that 56% of the U.S. public believe healthcare, in broad, is handled “not too well” or “not at all well,” while 32% believe healthcare is vended with “somewhat well.”
In all, just 1 in 10 Americans senses the U.S. healthcare system and healthcare for older adults are endured well or exceptionally well.
“The poll indicates that public satisfaction with the U.S. healthcare system is remarkably less, with fewer than half of Americans stating it is usually handled well,” AP notes. “The poll indicates an overwhelming majority of Americans, basically 8 in 10, say they are at least moderately concerned about getting admission to quality healthcare when they require it.”
The survey outcomes will come as no surprise to those who have attempted to guide the byzantine U.S. healthcare system to receive primary care, which often comes at such prohibitively high costs that millions each year are compelled to skip treatments to avoid financial collapse as insurance giants and pharmaceutical corporations rake in huge profits.
The AP/NORC findings, established on interviews with 1,505 U.S. adults between July 28 and August 1, 2022, indicate that just 6% feel prescription drug costs are managed well or exceptionally well in the U.S., where pharmaceutical companies have broad authority to set prices as they pleasure.
As for possible solutions to the country’s longstanding healthcare crises, the new poll indicates that “about two-thirds of adults think it is the federal government’s commitment to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage, with adults ages 18 to 49 more possible than those over 50 to hold that opinion.”
“The percentage of people who acknowledge healthcare coverage is a government commitment has risen in recent years, ticking up from 57% in 2019 and 62% in 2017,” AP reports.
More precisely, the survey shows just 40% for a “single-payer healthcare system that would need Americans to get their health insurance from a government plan.” Relying on how the question is framed and phrased, single-payer—more generally called Medicare for All—has polled as high as 70% support.
As per the AP-NORC survey, 58% “say they favor a government health insurance plan that anyone can buy”—a public option.
Current research shows that a Medicare for All system of the kind proposed in new legislation presented by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) could have stopped hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. over the last two years.
“In the wealthiest country in the world, no one should die or go into debt just because they do not have access to healthcare,” Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted last week. “We require Medicare for All now.”