WASHINGTON -- In a wide-ranging survey of American opinion on health care, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that most oppose a Medicare proposal put forth by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that would give seniors a fixed amount of money to buy health insurance from private plans or traditional Medicare, according to February poll results released today.
Seventy percent of those polled favored the existing Medicare structure, while 25 percent said they would support partial privatization, or “premium support.” The reaction among seniors and younger adults was the same. Among Republicans, a narrow majority -- 53 percent -- said they preferred the status quo.
Republican Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon have proposed a similar plan in order to rein in the rapidly rising costs of Medicare.
The Kaiser poll also found that most Americans do not favor major Medicare cuts in order to curb the federal budget deficit; 13 percent supported sizeable cuts, 36 percent favored minor reductions, and half opposed any cuts. The strongest opposition came from seniors.
The public, though, seemed more willing to support raising Medicare’s age of eligibility, an idea Romney has proposed and one that President Obama once said he would consider. Fifty percent opposed the concept while 47 percent support it. The majority of seniors, who already qualify for Medicare and would be grandfathered in, support the plan, while a majority of those under 65 oppose it.
A third of seniors say they would only vote for a presidential candidate who shares their views on Medicare, compared with just 20 percent of adults under age 50. Democrats are more likely than Republicans or independents to consider Medicare a make-or-break issue.
The poll also surveyed people’s views on the ongoing controversy over contraception coverage and Obama’s health reform overhaul.
About six in 10 Americans said they support the new federal requirement that insurance plans include free birth control, while a third oppose it. Catholics were split along similar lines. But a large partisan divide exists on the issue, including among women: 85 percent of women who are Democrats support the requirement, but only 42 percent of women who are Republicans favor it. Among independent women, 67 percent approve.
The contraception issue, though, falls at the bottom of the list of concerns women most want to hear presidential candidates address; 58 percent named the economy as the most pressing matter while fewer than 1 percent said contraceptive coverage.
Americans are very much divided on the health reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act -- 42 percent hold favorable views of the law and 43 percent hold unfavorable views. This reflects a 5 percentage point uptick on the favorable side since Kaiser’s January poll, driven mostly by improved views of the law among independent voters.
The survey also found that a larger share of the American public trusts President Obama over any of the Republican presidential candidates when it comes to handling the future of Medicare and health care reform.
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeTracyJan.
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