Like many Americans who voted for Donald Trump, Jason Rouse hopes the president鈥檚 return will mean lower prices for gas, groceries, and other essentials.
But Rouse is looking to the federal government for relief from one particular pain point: high health care costs. 鈥淭he prices are just ridiculous,鈥 said Rouse, 53, a retired Michigan firefighter and paramedic who has voted for Trump three times. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to see a lower cap on what I have to pay out-of-pocket.鈥
Government regulation of health care prices used to be heresy for most Republicans. GOP leaders fiercely opposed the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which included government limits on patients鈥 costs. More recently, the party fought legislation signed by former President Joe Biden to cap prescription drug prices.
But as Trump begins his second term, many of the voters who sent him back to the White House welcome more robust government action to rein in a health care system many Americans perceive as out of control, polls show.
鈥淭hat idea that government should just keep its hands off, even when things are tough for people, has kind of lost its sheen,鈥 said Andrew Seligsohn, president of Public Agenda, a nonprofit that has studied about government and health care.
鈥淲e鈥檙e wandering around the country with a set of old, outdated frameworks about what ordinary Democrats and ordinary Republicans like,鈥 he said.
Republican voters strongly back federal limits on the prices charged by drug companies and hospitals, caps on patients鈥 medical bills, and restrictions on how health care providers can pursue people over medical debt.
Even Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program that Republican congressional leaders are eyeing to dramatically cut, is by many GOP voters, like Ashley Williamson.
Williamson, 37, a mother of five in eastern Tennessee who voted for Trump, said Medicaid provided critical assistance when her mother-in-law needed nursing home care. 鈥淲e could not take care of her,鈥 Williamson said. 鈥淚t stepped in. It made sure she was taken care of.鈥
Williamson, whose own family gets coverage through her husband鈥檚 employer, said she would be very concerned by large cuts in Medicaid funding that could jeopardize coverage for needy Americans.
For years, Republican ideas about health care reflected a broad skepticism about government and fears that government would threaten patients鈥 access to physicians or lifesaving medicines.
鈥淭he discussions 10 to 15 years ago were all around choice,鈥 said Christine Matthews, a Republican pollster who has worked for numerous GOP politicians, including former Maryland governor Larry Hogan. 鈥淔ree market, not having the government limit or take over your health care.鈥
Matthews and fellow pollster Mike Perry recently convened and paid for several focus groups with Trump voters, including Rouse and Williamson, which 麻豆女优 Health News observed.
Skepticism about government lingers among rank-and-file Republicans. And ideas such as shifting all Americans into a single government health plan, akin to 鈥淢edicare for All,鈥 are still nonstarters for many GOP voters.
But as tens of millions of Americans are driven into debt by medical bills they don鈥檛 understand or can鈥檛 afford, many are reassessing their inclination to look to free markets rather than the government, said Bob Ward, whose firm, Fabrizio Ward, polled for Trump鈥檚 2024 campaign.
鈥淚 think most people look at this and say the market is broken, and that鈥檚 why they鈥檙e willing for someone, anyone, to step in,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he deck is stacked against folks.鈥
In a , Fabrizio Ward and Hart Research, which for decades has polled for Democratic candidates, found that Trump voters were more likely to blame health insurers, drug companies, and hospital systems than the government for high health care costs.
Sarah Bognaski, 31, an administrative assistant in upstate New York, is among the many Trump voters who say they resent profiteering by the health care industry. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there is any reason a lot of the costs should be as high as they are,鈥 Bognaski said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 just out of pure greed.鈥
High health care costs have had a direct impact on Bognaski, who was diagnosed four years ago with Type 1 diabetes, a condition that makes her dependent on insulin. She said she鈥檚 ready to have the government step in and cap what patients pay for pharmaceuticals. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to see more regulation,鈥 she said.
Charles Milliken, a retired auto mechanic in West Virginia, who said he backed Trump because the country 鈥渘eeds a businessman, not a politician,鈥 expects the new president to go even further.
鈥淚 think he鈥檚 going to put a cap on what insurance companies can charge, what doctors can charge, what hospitals can charge,鈥 said Milliken, 51, who recently had a heart attack that left him with more than $6,000 in medical debt.
Three-quarters of Trump voters back government limits on what hospitals can charge, Ward鈥檚 polling found.
And about half of Trump voters in a said the new administration should prioritize expanding the number of drugs whose price is set through negotiation between the federal Medicare program and drug companies, a program started under the Biden administration.
Perry, who鈥檚 convened dozens of focus groups with voters about health care in recent years, said the support for government price caps is all the more remarkable since regulating medical prices isn鈥檛 at the top of most politicians鈥 agenda. 鈥淚t seems to be like a groundswell,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e come to this decision on their own, rather than any policymakers leading them there, that something needs to be done.鈥
Other forms of government regulation, such as limits on medical debt collections, are even more popular.
About 8 in 10 Republicans backed a $2,300 cap on how much patients could be required to pay annually for medical debt, according to a by Perry鈥檚 polling firm, PerryUndem. And 9 in 10 favored a cap on interest rates charged on medical debt.
鈥淭hese are what I would consider no-brainers, from a political perspective,鈥 Ward said.
But GOP political leaders in Washington have historically shown little interest in government limits on what patients pay for medical care. And as Trump and his allies in Congress begin shaping their health care agenda, many Republican leaders have expressed more interest in cutting government than in expanding its protections.
鈥淭here is oftentimes a massive disconnect,鈥 Ward said, 鈥渂etween what happens in the caucuses on Capitol Hill and what鈥檚 happening at family tables across America.鈥
We鈥檇 like to speak with current and former personnel from the Department of Health and Human Services or its component agencies who believe the public should understand the impact of what鈥檚 happening within the federal health bureaucracy. Please message 麻豆女优 Health News on Signal at (415) 519-8778 or .