A quarter of Americans see the country’s health care system as being in “crisis” as Republicans in Congress look set to let expanded health care tax credits expire and raise insurance costs for millions, a new poll has found.
The West Health-Gallup Health and Healthcare Survey showed 23 percent of Americans say the U.S. health care system is “in a state of crisis,” while 47 percent say that it has “major problems.”
While the trend of Americans saying that health care has major problems has remained steady over the years, the 23 percent of people saying the system is in a state of crisis is the highest number for Gallup to date.
Americans will likely see more difficulties with their health care in the coming months. In two weeks, the expanded tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace will expire. That will lead to increased healthcare insurance premiums for roughly 20 million. Republicans so far have not shown any interest in expanding the credits and a healthcare bill that the House GOP released Friday evening does not deal with the expiring subsidies.
Democrats sought to have an extension attached to the continuing resolution to keep the government open in October, triggering a government shutdown. But the shutdown ended with only the promise for a vote on the subsidies, which failed last week.
A handful of rogue Republicans introduced a discharge petition to force a vote on an extension of the tax credits with some tweaks for income caps. But the petition has yet to receive the requisite 218 signatures to force a floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Another discharge petition led by Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey also extends the subsidies.
“I think pressure is really mounting on my friends on the other side, I think they really understand that the clock is ticking,” Gottheimer told The Independent Friday. “They're going to be sending huge lumps of coal home and stockings for people, and that's a big problem for them. And I think they see they see the numbers, they see where people are.”
But even Democratic leadership seems uninterested in the discharge petitions. Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he would only accept a clean three-year extension of the tax credits.
“All we need are four Republicans to do right by their constituents and sign on,” he said. in a statement. “Anything less is waste of time.”
The same Gallup poll also showed that 29 percent of Americans say cost is now the most urgent health problem facing the United States, up 23 percent from last year. By contrast, 17 percent say access to health care is the most urgent crisis and 8 percent say obesity.
In addition, a record-low 16 percent of Americans are satisfied with the cost of health care.
The poll also showed that 64 percent of Americans say the government has a responsibility to ensure all Americans have health coverage, the highest it has been since 2007. The number hit a nadir of 43 percent, a few years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act when the website to sign up for healthcare broke.
President Donald Trump has shown little interest in the specifics of any health care solution, holding only a perfunctory meeting with congressional leaders before the government shutdown.
Americans are also likely to feel the pain of health care elsewhere. The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act establishes work requirements for Medicaid and caps the amount of money that states can tax health care providers, such as hospitals and nursing homes, to receive matching federal dollars for Medicaid.
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