Polling Commissioned by Community Catalyst Finds Overwhelming Support for Action to Expand Dental Care, Protect People from Medical Debt and Hold Non-Profit Hospitals Accountable to their Tax Breaks

BOSTON, MA – Recently, Community Catalyst commissioned research with HIT Strategies, the leading millennial and minority-owned public opinion research firm, which reinforced the dramatic power and resonance of pushing for policies that draw the connection between health care affordability and people’s overall health and economic well-being. As HIT’s research demonstrates, these policies have strong bipartisan support and especially resonate with Black voters, Latino voters, and LGBTQ+ voters — demonstrating the vast potential to build power with those voters and communities to enact change that benefits all. 

The poll found voters want policymakers across both aisles in Washington to take bolder action to make health care more affordable and equitable. The poll found overwhelming support for policymakers to take action to expand dental care, protect people from medical debt and hold non-profit hospitals accountable for their tax breaks. Among the results:

  • Voters across the political spectrum want to see major change in the health care system, emphasizing the desire among voters for bipartisan action in this area. Voters want to see substantial change in the health care system (71% say it needs major change or be completely rebuilt). This includes 74% of self-ID Democrats, 75% of Independents and 66% of Republicans. This finding points to an opportunity to offer bipartisan solutions that push major change in the health care system forward.
  • There is overwhelming bipartisan support for Community Catalyst’s policy priorities when provided contextual information. Each policy we tested had support from a strong majority of voters (60% or more) and was highly supported across demographics and political ideologies. The most popular policies were: making dental care part of what insurance companies must cover (83% total support, 62%strongly support) and removing all medical debt from credit scores (75% support, 57% strongly support). While these policies were popular across demographics, Black voters, Latino voters, and LGBTQ voters consistently reported even higher support. The questions were framed with contextual information about the purpose and functionality of each policy, contributing to the understanding of each policy and therefore the support. This finding validates that there is a strong case for educating voters on these policies and enacting them.
  • Cost of living is top-of-mind for voters currently. There is a strong through line connecting economy and cost of living to health care affordability when voters are presented with information. When given a list of issues, most voters agree that cost of living (52%) and economy (49%) are of utmost importance, while 28% say health care. However, most voters say the policies tested will ease their living expenses: they predict that insurance coverage of dental care (66% total impact, 37% big impact) and policies aimed at preventing medical debt (68% total impact, 33% big impact) would have the biggest impact on their own cost of living. Parents, young voters under 40, Black voters and Latino voters predict even higher impact. This finding emphasizes that, though voters may not organically make this connection at first, health care is a cost-of-living issue and should be addressed as one. 
  • Most voters are struggling to afford their health care costs and/or insurance plans. Though almost all are insured (91%), the majority of voters nationally are still struggling to afford health care costs and/or their insurance plan (23% can afford insurance but struggle to afford other health care costs, and 32% struggle to afford both insurance and other health care costs,together making up 55% of the audience). Close to half report they currently have some form of medical debt (43%). This finding further validates the link between health care and cost-of-living. It also emphasizes that getting people insured is not enough to make health care more affordable, opening the door to policies that go beyond insurance coverage.

“There is a clear desire by voters for bolder action on health care to build a system that is more affordable and equitable,” said Mona Shah, Senior Director of Policy and Strategy, Community Catalyst. “It is also clear that they want additional action from Washington to address the growing medical debt crisis, unattainable and unaffordable dental care and reign in non-profit hospitals acting like for-profit businesses helping drive the medical debt crisis. At Community Catalyst we will continue to advocate for these policies with the administration and on the Hill. Fifteen years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, it is clear there is still much work to be done to make health care more accessible and affordable while creating more protections for people seeking care.”

“Voters nationally want to see action on health care affordability as a central piece of the economic policy agenda. With the increased concern over cost of living, these health care policies are easy wins for policymakers given the extraordinary bipartisan voter support,” said Ashley Aylward, Senior Researcher at HIT Strategies. “We don’t often see such universal agreement for policies and have those trends remain so consistent among party identification and demographic subgroups. It’s clear that healthcare is a top priority across the board.”

The poll consisted of 1,000 registered voters nationally, with oversamples of Black, Latino/a, AAPI and young (aged 18-39) registered voters, conducted via online panel. 

The findings back up the broader, longtime work of Community Catalyst in advocating, with partners at the local, state and national level, for executive and legislative action to protect people from medical debt by expanding Essential Health Benefits to provide more comprehensive care, including dental; keeping medical debt off of credit reports; holding nonprofit hospitals accountable to their tax breaks; and more.

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About Community Catalyst:

Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at communitycatalyst.org.