Most US adults oppose Social Security, Medicare cuts, poll shows

April 07, 2023 at 12:08 PM EDT

A recent poll found that the majority of American adults are opposed to cutting Medicare or Social Security benefits. More than half are against raising monthly premiums for Medicare.

Most adults in the U.S. are opposed to slashing Medicare or Social Security benefits, according to a recent poll.

The findings from a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that was released in March showed a majority support raising taxes on the country's highest earners to keep Medicare running as is.

Nearly 80% said they opposed a reduction to the size of Social Security benefits and 67% are against raising monthly premiums for Medicare.

A majority, 58%, support the idea of raising taxes on households making over $400,000 annually to pay for Medicare.

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But the results indicated a political divide. The agency said 75% of Democrats support the tax, but that Republicans are divided, with 42% in favor and 37% opposed. The poll showed 20% support neither.

In addition, the poll found that Americans have doubts about the stability of both programs, which are slated to run out of enough money to pay out full benefits within the next decade.

Only around 2 in 10 are very or extremely confident that the benefits from either program will be available to them, and around half have little or no confidence.

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The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released last week cautioned that Medicare will only have enough cash to cover 89% of payments for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031. Two years later, Social Security will just be able to pay 77% of benefits to retirees.

Approximately 65 million older and disabled Americans access government-sponsored health insurance through Medicare and rely on monthly payments from Social Security.

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While some Republicans have discussed the idea of raising the eligibility age for the programs, a majority of Americans were found to overwhelmingly reject that too.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.