People Are Not Satisfied With Health Care In The U.S.

These charts are from a recent Gallup Poll -- done between November 1st and 11th of a national sample of 1,037 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

They show that Americans are not happy with the health care system in this country.

It's not necessarily the quality of health care offered, although I would have expected more than 55% to be satisfied with that quality.

The two biggest concerns are the cost of health care and the access to that health care. Only 20% are satisfied with the cost, while a whopping 79% are not -- and sadly, that cost continues to rise faster than the cost of other necessities. Only 34% rate the coverage (access) to health care as good or excellent. Too many people have no insurance, and many other have policies that still leave them in danger of bankruptcy if a major event happens.

Obamacare didn't solve either of those problems (cost or access for all), and the Republicans have made it even worse (while offering no solutions).

The best answer to these problems would be a single-payer Medicare-For-All health care system with the authority to negotiate prices with drug companies and health care providers. But with Trump in the White House and the Republicans still controlling the Senate, that is not going to happen.

The Democrats in the next Congress will try to patch up Obamacare to make it work a little better, but the Senate will probably kill anything that offers real change (since Senate Republicans don't think health care is a right -- just a product to be sold to those who can afford it).

I doubt that either the cost or access problems will be fixed in the next couple of years. That makes it very important to put a Democrat in the White House, and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, in 2020.  Until that happens, no real substantive changes will be made.