Demographic That Voted Trump In Large Numbers Turns On His Healthcare Plan, Poll Shows

A KFF-AP poll released Wednesday found that 54% of rural Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of healthcare, a notable shift among a demographic that backed him heavily in 2024. The survey points to rising cost anxiety, with two-thirds of rural voters saying they are "very" or "somewhat worried" about affording gasoline, transportation or medical care for their families, according to Daily Caller.

On specific programs, 44% of respondents said administration policies have hurt Medicare, compared with 35% who saw no effect and 21% who saw improvement. Medicaid views were similar, with 44% reporting a negative impact, 31% a positive one, and 24% no impact. Prescription drug costs drew more mixed reactions, with 30% calling the administration's approach positive and 35% each saying it was negative or had no effect. One 54-year-old rural Wisconsin Republican told KFF that her family's health insurance premium tripled over the past year, saying, "we can barely afford to pay for it plus afford food."

White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster defended the record, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that Trump signed "the largest ever investment in rural health care" through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. She pointed to the Rural Health Transformation Program as a multibillion-dollar effort to meet rural communities' health needs, and cited administration steps on drug pricing, including an agreement extending lower prescription prices to all 50 states' Medicaid programs and a $167 million investment announced for rural healthcare sites in South Carolina.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Daily Caller’s reporting. Read the full story at Daily Caller →