TUESDAY, Aug. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Ahead of the 2024 election, more than half of older adults in the United States say they are very concerned about the cost of health care, according to a research letter published online Aug. 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
John Z. Ayanian, MD, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues surveyed a nationally representative cohort of adults ages 50 and older as part of the National Poll on Healthy Aging to find out what health-related concerns are most important ahead of the 2024 election. The analysis included 2,576 responses.
Researchers found that five of the top six concerns were related to the cost of health care and health insurance, with 44.6 to 56.3 percent saying they were very concerned about these issues. Financial fraud and scams were the other highest-rated concerns (52.8 percent very concerned). There were significant differences in the level of concern about the cost of health care by age, with 59.6 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds very concerned versus 53.4 percent of 65- to 101-year-olds. There were also significant differences by gender (59.3 percent of women versus 54.1 percent of men), political leaning (68.2, 56.4, and 51.4 percent for liberal, moderate, and conservative, respectively), and location (55.9 versus 61.7 percent for metropolitan versus non-metropolitan areas).
“To reach older voters, presidential and congressional candidates should prioritize communicating their plans to control health care costs,” the authors write.
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