Two thirds of voters (66%), including large shares of Democrats, Republicans, and independents, identify access and affordability of health care and the future of Medicare, an issue not being widely discussed on the campaign trail, as top priorities for the presidential candidates to talk about during the campaign. Smaller majorities of voters say the same about Medicaid’s future (54%), prescription drug costs (53%), and the future of the 2010 health care law (52%).
So far Medicare has not been one of the major health-care issues in the presidential campaign. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump has talked about it much. The former secretary of state has discussed the idea of a Medicare buy-in for the near-elderly, but that’s been mentioned more as a way of strengthening the Affordable Care Act, not reforming Medicare. Meanwhile, Medicare faces serious long-term challenges, including how to finance care for an aging population, ensure its solvency in the future, fill gaps in coverage, and address cost-sharing burdens that can be onerous for its mostly lower- and moderate-income beneficiaries.
HENRY KOTULA 