Key Point: “Most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive, according to a new AP-NORC poll, as they make decisions about next year’s health coverage and a government shutdown keeps future health costs in limbo for millions. […] President Donald Trump’s mega-bill passed this summer cuts more than $1 trillion from federal health care and food assistance over a decade […] Republicans say the cuts will prevent people who don’t need aid from gaming the system, but the cuts will ultimately result in millions of people losing health insurance coverage, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”

Associated Press: What Americans think about rising health care costs, according to a new AP-NORC poll

By: Ali Swenson and Linley Sanders

• Most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive, according to a new AP-NORC poll, as they make decisions about next year’s health coverage and a government shutdown keeps future health costs in limbo for millions.

• About 6 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about their health costs going up in the next year, the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds — a worry that extends across age groups and includes people with and without health insurance.

• Many Americans have other health care anxieties, too. The poll found that about 4 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about not being able to pay for health care or medications they need, not being able to access health care when they need it, or losing or not having health insurance.

• Medicare beneficiaries are already shopping for next year’s coverage, and open enrollment periods for many other health plans are approaching quickly in November. Federal policies have left millions of people at risk of skyrocketing health insurance premiums or of losing their health insurance altogether. 

• The findings show that many Americans are feeling vulnerable to spiking health care costs, with some expressing concerns about whether they’ll have coverage at all.

• About 8 in 10 U.S. adults say the issue of health care is “extremely” or “very” important to them personally. That includes about 9 in 10 Democrats and three-quarters of Republicans, and it puts health care next to the economy among Americans’ top issue priorities.

• President Donald Trump’s mega-bill passed this summer cuts more than $1 trillion from federal health care and food assistance over a decade, largely by imposing work requirements on those receiving aid and by shifting certain federal costs onto the states. Republicans say the cuts will prevent people who don’t need aid from gaming the system, but the cuts will ultimately result in millions of people losing health insurance coverage, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

• Health care continues to be a weakness for Trump. Only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults approve of the Republican president’s handling of health care, which hasn’t changed meaningfully since September. Almost all Democrats disapprove of his approach, but so do about 8 in 10 independents and about one-third of Republicans.

• About 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they trust the Democrats to do a better job handling health care, compared with about one-quarter who trust the Republicans more. About one-quarter trust neither party, and about 1 in 10 trust both equally.