Poll: Public Backs Medicaid

The public's attitude toward Medicaid remains positive despite the big impact the program is having on state budgets and lawmakers' frequent calls for reform, an opinion survey released Wednesday shows.

Nearly three-quarters of adults say the nation's health insurance program for the poor is a "very important" government program, ranking it close to Social Security (88 percent) and Medicare (83 percent), equal to aid to public schools, and ahead of defense (57 percent) and foreign aid (20 percent).

"We expected Medicaid to be relatively unpopular with the public, much like welfare was," said Mollyann Brodie, director of public opinion and media research for the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research organization. "But we found that Medicaid ranks closer to popular programs like Medicare and Social Security in the public's mind."

Brodie said 56 percent of respondents reported some interaction with Medicaid — either they were on the program themselves or knew a friend or family member on the program.

"The fact that so many Americans have some kind of contact with Medicaid themselves or through family and friends is one factor that could help explain the result," she said.

The poll, conducted April 1 through May 1, involved telephoning 1,201 people nationally ages 18 or older. The margin of error for questions asked of all respondents was plus or minus 3 percentage points. That margin grew to plus or minus 4 percentage points for questions asked of subsets of respondents.
The public's view of Medicaid becomes relevant as lawmakers grapple with how to slow the growth of the program by $10 billion over the next five years, which amounts to less than 1 percent of total spending during those years. Combined, the federal government and states will spend more than $300 billion this year on Medicaid.

The survey showed that 44 percent of respondents preferred the federal government maintain the current level of spending for Medicaid, 36 percent preferred increasing federal spending, 12 percent wanted to cut federal spending, and 7 percent didn't know.

When respondents were asked about their state's budget problems, most respondents, 74 percent, cited Medicaid costs as a reason for those problems.

But when asked how the states should resolve those budget problems, the response was decidedly mixed with 24 percent saying that programs other than Medicaid should be cut — such as education, transportation and prisons — to 21 percent who said Medicaid should be cut. Another 21 percent said the state should raise taxes. The remaining 34 percent had other suggestions or didn't know.

"Proposals to cut funding for the program or scale back the coverage it offers do not appear to be popular with the public," concluded Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Many of those who support trimming the program's growth say they believe it can be done without cutting services, such as by reducing the amounts paid to drug companies for prescription drugs.

By Kevin Freking