Poll: Public Backs Medicaid

Survey Finds It Ranks Ahead Of Defense, Foreign Aid In Importance

(AP)  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.