Protecting Medicare a top concern for more than half of Americans in 2024 presidential election

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

47% : Survey participants reported candidates' positions on the following health care issues were the "single most important" or "among the most important" factor(s) in determining their vote for president on Nov. 5:"Americans remain concerned over high health care prices and the future of Medicare and Social Security -- even though other issues dominate during this election cycle," Timothy Lash, president of the West Health Policy Center, said in a news release about the poll.
42% : While independents favored Harris, particularly when it comes to protecting or strengthening Medicare, about a third don't trust either candidate.
39% : Perhaps unsurprisingly, the importance of protecting Medicare and Social Security increased with age, with the vast majority of people 65 and older (84%) marking it a top issue, followed by nearly three-fourths (73%) of those aged 50 to 64 and half (50%) of those under 50.
38% : Aside from protecting Medicare and Social Security, Republicans didn't reach a majority in any category, the lowest being policies related to mental health care access (30%).
28% : With so many policies -- from affordable housing to education and immigration -- at the forefront of the fight between Trump and Harris, most Americans (67%) don't think health care has been getting "enough attention.
25% : Overall, more than half of respondents (59%) said improvement was "not very likely" or "not likely at all."As you might expect, Republicans were most trusting of Trump on the health care issues polled, while Democrats were most trusting of Harris and independents were somewhere in between -- though Dems' trust in Harris outweighed Republicans' in Trump on each issue.

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