Poll: Americans Oppose Cuts To Children’s Health Care

From The Hill:

Voters are just as opposed to slashing children’s healthcare programs as they are to cutting Medicare, according to a new poll by the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.

The poll was commissioned by the children’s advocacy group First Focus. It seeks to demonstrate that the House Republican budget’s $750 billion cut to Medicaid is as unpopular as plans to replace Medicare with subsidies for private insurance.

Seventy percent of respondents somewhat or strongly opposed the GOP budget’s cut to Medicaid, versus 27 percent in favor. The poll also indicated strong opposition to proposed cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (73 percent to 23 percent).

Also, 64 percent of respondents said they opposed giving state governors the flexibility to drop some children off of the rolls.

“The American people are sending a message that is loud and clear: don’t cut kids,” First Focus President Bruce Lesley said in a statement. “Many recent spending proposals have sacrificed the needs of children in order to protect the interests of others. However, results from this survey prove that protecting programs that improve the well-being of children is immensely important to voters. We urge policymakers to heed the priorities of their constituents by holding children harmless as they work to find solutions to our nation’s budget challenges.”

The poll, conducted April 13-18, has a 3.1 percent margin of error.