If Kamala Harris and Donald Trump wish to earn the votes of older adults, they higher take note of well being care.
A current Pew Analysis Heart ballot reveals that well being care affordability tops the listing of considerations for American voters—forward of worries in regards to the federal finances, immigration, and gun violence.
Adults over 50 made up greater than half of voters within the 2020 election, making the considerations of this key demographic a number of the most crucial to the upcoming presidential election.
A brand new examine performed by the College of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Coverage and Innovation, utilizing knowledge from the Nationwide Ballot on Wholesome Getting older performed in February and March 2024, reveals the health-related points most worrying to older adults.
Well being care and insurance coverage prices amongst high considerations
Issues about well being care and medical health insurance prices made up 5 of the six high points from a listing of 26. Respondents stated they had been very apprehensive about the price of house care, assisted dwelling, and nursing house care (56%); the price of medical care (56%); the price of prescription drugs (54%); monetary scams and fraud (53%); and the price of medical health insurance and Medicare (52%).
College of Michigan
“The cost of health care and the need for health care are both so substantial for older adults in the U.S.,” says the examine’s lead creator Dr. John Z. Ayanian, director of the Institute of Healthcare Coverage and Innovation.
“We’ve had some great advances in helping people manage chronic conditions and reduce their risk of cancer and other major health problems,” Ayanian says, “but the costs of those services have outpaced the growth in inflation in the past 20 to 30 years.”
Older adults really feel that extra acutely, he says, as they spend extra of their revenue on well being care as their well being issues develop—which turns into particularly tough for retired individuals dwelling on a restricted fastened revenue.
“Older adults would like political leaders to be devoting greater effort to controlling all forms of health care costs,” Ayanian tells Fortune.
The psychological toll of economic fraud
One of many high considerations that emerged from the examine was one not explicitly associated to well being care: monetary fraud and scams. Ayanian and his group discovered that many older adults have been victims of economic scams or know individuals who have been impacted by them. The Authorities Accountability Workplace estimates that older People lose $2.9 billion every year from monetary fraud.
Researchers selected to incorporate it within the survey due to the excessive diploma of psychological misery these scams may cause, Ayanian says, which snowballs into different well being issues if victims of economic fraud wrestle to hunt medical care, entry meals, or discover housing consequently.
Of the highest 5 health-related considerations, over half of respondents answered they had been “very concerned.” However there have been some demographic divisions.
Inside these high six points from the examine, extra girls reported being very involved than males, and extra liberals and moderates reported being very involved than conservatives.
Roughly 53.1% of the respondents had been girls, 46.6% had been males, and 0.3% had been transgender or nonbinary. The overwhelming majority had been white (77%), whereas political ideologies had been break up between liberal (17.3%), average (46.8%), and conservative (35.9%).
Members with family incomes beneath $60,000 per yr made up roughly 51% of respondents, whereas these making above $60,000 had been 49% of the group.
No matter family incomes, well being care and insurance coverage prices had been of equal concern. Of respondents incomes lower than $60,000 per yr 58.4% stated they had been very involved about well being care and insurance coverage prices, in comparison with 54.1% of respondents who earned greater than that.
The authors conclude that, “To engage older voters, candidates for president and Congress should prioritize communicating their plans for controlling health care costs.”
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