If Kamala Harris and Donald Trump want to win the votes of the older population, they should focus more on health care.
A recent Pew Research Center Opinion poll shows that Healthcare Food affordability tops the list of concerns for American voters – even ahead of concerns about the federal budget, immigration and gun violence.
In the 2020 election, adults over 50 made up more than half of the electorate, making the concerns of this important demographic among the most critical in the upcoming presidential election.
A new study from the University of Michigan Institute for Health Policy and Innovationusing data from the National survey on healthy ageing The survey, conducted in February and March 2024, shows which health problems are of greatest concern to older adults.
Health and insurance costs are among the biggest concerns
Concerns about the cost of health care and health insurance accounted for five of the top six issues out of a list of 26. Respondents said they were very concerned about the cost of home health care, assisted living, and nursing home care (56%); the cost of medical care (56%); the cost of prescription drugs (54%); financial fraud and scams (53%); and the cost of health insurance and Medicare (52%).
University of Michigan
“The cost of health care and the need for health care are enormous for older people in the United States,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. John Z. Ayanian, director of the Institute of Healthcare Policy and Innovation.
“We have made great progress in helping people manage chronic conditions and reduce their risk of cancer and other serious health problems,” says Ayanian, “but the costs of these services have risen faster than inflation over the past 20 to 30 years.”
Older people feel this more acutely, he says, because as health problems increase they spend a larger share of their income on health care. This becomes especially difficult for retirees living on a limited fixed income.
“Older adults would like to see political leaders make greater efforts to keep all forms of health care costs under control,” says Ayanian Assets.
The psychological burden of financial fraud
One of the biggest concerns that emerged from the study was one that was not explicitly related to health care: financial fraud and scams. Ayanian and his team found that many older adults Victims of financial fraud or know people who are affected. The Government Accountability Office estimates that older Americans 2.9 billion US dollars every year through financial fraud.
The researchers chose to include these scams in their study because these scams can cause high levels of psychological stress, Ayanian says. This stress can also spill over into other health problems if victims of financial fraud have difficulty obtaining medical care, food or housing as a result.
When asked about the top five health-related concerns, more than half of respondents said they were “very concerned.” However, there were some demographic differences.
More women than men were very concerned about the study’s six most important issues, and more liberals and moderates than conservatives were very concerned.
About 53.1% of respondents were women, 46.6% were men, and 0.3% were transgender or nonbinary. The vast majority were white (77%), while political ideologies were split between liberal (17.3%), moderate (46.8%), and conservative (35.9%).
Participants with household incomes of less than $60,000 per year made up about 51% of the respondents, while those with incomes over $60,000 made up 49% of the group.
Regardless of household income, health care and insurance costs were equally concerning. Of respondents earning less than $60,000 per year, 58.4 percent said they were very concerned about health care and insurance costs, compared with 54.1 percent of respondents earning more.
The authors conclude: “To appeal to older voters, presidential and congressional candidates should prioritize communicating their plans to control health care costs.”
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