It's About Health Care (Still!)
Cross post of an article by Phil Moeller
In my Government We Deserve column, I sometimes recommend, write with, and engage other authors. Here, I would like to cross-post a recent Substack post by Journallist Phil Moeller, who writes Aging In America. He has worked for newspapers in Charlotte, Chicago, Louisville, Baltimore, and Hartford; he has written for U.S News & World Report, Money, and the PBS NewsHour. Phil is the primary author of Simon & Schuster’s Get What’s Yours bestselling books about Medicare and Social Security. This April 13, 2026, post reveals how the affordability of health care tops the list of concerns of senior citizens.
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A recent Gallup Poll finds 61 percent of Americans worried more about healthcare than anything else these days. (see figure above). The 10-percentage point gap between concerns about health and the economy is large by polling standards and will continue to shape 2026 mid-term election races. The poll was taken in the early stages of the Iran war, so it’s likely some concerns have changed.
Not surprisingly in today’s sharply divided political climate, Democrats are far more worried about healthcare than are Republicans.
“Republicans and Democrats worry about sharply different things,” Gallup reports, “with illegal immigration the chief concern of Republicans, at 55%, followed by federal spending and the budget deficit (47%), drug use (42%), and crime and violence (41%).”
“By contrast, Democrats’ top concerns are healthcare (80%), income/wealth distribution (77%) and the economy (69%).”
The public concerns about these issues have been similar for years, the pollster says, but healthcare has become a relatively more serious concern of late. Gallup does not say why, but higher health insurance premiums, the rising cost of care, and difficulty finding acceptable care surely play a role.
Affordability has become a hot button. On April 10, the government reported a surge in March consumer prices – 3.3 percent higher than a year ago. The increase was caused chiefly by the Iran war. But healthcare costs were 3.7 percent higher than a year ago and are still a problem.
On the same day, the University of Michigan’s monthly consumer sentiment survey for April hit its lowest level in the program’ 70-year history, the Wall Street Journal reported (gift link):
“The darker economic mood was widespread across people of different ages, income levels and political affiliations, said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director. ‘Many consumers blame the Iran conflict for unfavorable changes to the economy,’ she said.
“Hsu added that if this week’s cease-fire holds and allows gas prices to moderate, spirits could rebound. ‘Economic expectations will likely improve after consumers gain confidence that the supply disruptions stemming from the Iran conflict have ended and gas prices have moderated,’” she said.
For seniors and disabled people on Medicare, there is another storm cloud forming.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to toy with automatically enrolling new Medicare users in private Medicare Advantage (MA) insurance plans rather than letting first-time enrollees choose traditional Medicare plans.
Such a proposal was included in Project 2025. In late March, the STAT news service reported that the proposal is being considered by CMS. The full article is behind a paywall. Here are the first two paragraphs:
“President Trump’s Medicare director said . . . his team is considering a policy that would automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage plans, a controversial idea that was touted in the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint.
“Chris Klomp [CMS director of Medicare] said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is mulling the feasibility of models that would either automatically enroll beneficiaries into the private form of Medicare or accountable care organizations, such as those that participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Individuals could still opt into a different insurance arrangement. Right now, people who don’t make a choice are covered by traditional Medicare.”
Although people could opt out of MA into traditional Medicare, the Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA) said a bill has been introduced in the House “that would change the default enrollment to MA, with an opportunity to opt-out, and would mandate that once people are enrolled in an MA plan, they would be unable to disenroll or switch plans for three years. The Center for Medicare Advocacy strongly opposes such administrative and legislative efforts and urges policymakers to both strengthen and keep traditional Medicare as the default.”
Stay safe, be kind, and don’t look away. Please raise your voice to end illegal actions by federal and state officials.
Under regular Medicare, are there limits on how much non-emergency care someone receives? Does that depend on their Part B plan? Do they have cost sharing for all care they receive?
Republicans worry about sensationalized, evergreen distractions promoted by tabloid news and social media. Democrats worry about actual policy issues and concerns. I'm a 'senior' and I don't worry about paying for health care (as distinct from long-term care). I have Medicare and a Medigap plan from a traditional mutual insurer. (No Advantage plan for me.) National health care, refreshed Social Security and lower state university fees are what the country needs--to reduce personal debt, desperation and alienation, and to enhance the nation's human capital. But fear-mongering continues to lead white high-school-educated Republicans to believe that any collective action steals money from them and gives it to idle colored people. Backward-looking Trumpism, if allowed to entrench itself over the next three years, will be bad news for the U.S. and the world. One reform that must occur before all others: No president should be allowed to have his own social media channel. This is pure octane for demagoguery and autocracy. IMHO. There will be a huge constitutional fight over this unless everyone believes that it must be done.