Kaiser poll shows Americans don't trust government to run Medicare

In its June Health Tracking Poll, Kaiser Family Foundation finds that Americans generally do not have confidence in Congress or private insurers to keep Medicare financially sound.

While no group gets an overwhelming level of support from survey respondents, Americans appear to have more confidence in an independent panel of experts than the federal agency that now runs Medicare.

[See also: Republicans' 2012 budget plan alters Medicare, Medicaid]

Other key findings include:

• In order to reduce the federal deficit, a plurality of Americans (45 percent) say they would support minor reductions to current levels of Medicare spending, but fewer than one in five (18 percent) support major reductions for this purpose.
• The public overall is divided on a proposal to change Medicare into a system in which the government pays a fixed amount to help seniors acquire private health insurance coverage (45 percent support the proposal and 49 percent prefer the current system).
• Many Americans – and even higher shares of seniors – remain unaware of some of the key provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that affect Medicare.
• The public remains divided in their overall assessments of the ACA, with 42 percent holding a favorable view of the law and 46 percent an unfavorable one. 
• As the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination gets underway, voters continue to want lawmakers and candidates to focus on the country's economic problems. The economy and jobs dominate the list of issues voters say they want to hear about from candidates (60 percent), with healthcare ranking a distant second (26 percent).

The poll examines the opinions of seniors and the public about Medicare and the federal budget deficit, a topic of heightened interest these days as policymakers in Washington focus on ways to bring down Medicare spending as part of efforts to reduce the deficit. The poll also provides an early look at the views of registered voters and the potential role healthcare might play in the upcoming presidential election cycle.