President Joe Biden is focusing his campaign efforts on lowering health care costs, particularly for senior citizens. However, many older voters are still unaware of the major provisions in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act aimed at reducing drug costs for Medicare enrollees. Winning the support of senior citizens, a crucial voting bloc, will be important in the upcoming presidential election, as polls show older voters are split between Biden and former President Donald Trump. Awareness of certain key provisions, such as Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices, has increased among older voters, but there is still a lack of knowledge regarding other aspects of the legislation.
Despite efforts to highlight the measures, a significant number of older voters remain unaware of certain provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Some of these measures have yet to fully take effect, contributing to the lack of awareness among older adults. Additionally, the KFF poll found that large majorities of voters from both parties support extending some of the act’s drug provisions to all adults with health insurance, as proposed by Biden. When it comes to health care issues, independent voters trust Biden more than Trump to determine the future of the Affordable Care Act, ensure access to affordable health insurance, and maintain protections for people with preexisting conditions.
In terms of addressing high health care costs, Biden has a slight advantage over Trump among independent voters, though a significant portion of them do not trust either candidate on the issue. While older voters have more faith in Biden than Trump to determine the future of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, voters overall are mixed in terms of who they trust more to handle the fate of these programs. One of Biden’s health care proposals that has majority support among voters of all parties is extending the enhanced federal premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage, set to expire at the end of next year.
Support for guaranteeing a federal right to abortion aligns with Biden’s views, with 62% of voters in favor of this approach. Additionally, a significant portion of voters support leaving the decision on abortion legality up to individual states, as advocated by Trump. Looking at voters’ views by party, the majority of Democratic voters support a federal guarantee of abortion rights, while a significant portion of Republican voters would prefer to leave the decision to the states. Overall, the KFF poll highlights key differences in voter perceptions of Biden and Trump on health care and other related issues, indicating areas of strength and weakness for each candidate.
