MN Dept of Health ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ poll clearly designed to change opinions, not report them
As Congress wrestles with unsustainable Medicaid growth, and proposes ways to slow it, the state of Minnesota released a taxpayer-funded poll designed to show and manufacture opposition to the “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) working its way toward the President’s desk.
The Minnesota Department of Health released its Minnesota Health Access Survey (MHAS) results that show surprising opposition to any work requirements attached to Medicaid, while national poll results show strong support. So why would Minnesotans be more satisfied with Medicaid than the rest of the country? Of course, the answer is in the questions.
The survey is clearly designed to show high support for the Medicaid program (with no changes) and also misrepresents what the BBB actually does. That’s not what the MN Department of Health should be doing.
The question would indicate the BBB kicks disabled people off Medicaid. That is not true. Provisions in the BBB attempt to remove people from the program who are already on another plan, make too much money, or are dead. Someone reading the poll results would assume Medicaid has a 98% approval and people want no changes. That’s how the Walz administration reports the results. That’s not the case. In fact, most want to reform Medicaid and even the data in this survey show that.
The questions include what pollsters call “push polling,” which are questions designed to change opinions, not publish them. Respondents who said they supported work or school requirements were supplied “additional information” to cure their “wrong” answer.
After a majority of respondents said that they supported work requirements for Medicaid recipients, they were given an opportunity to cure their “wrong” answer by being offered the following question:
“What if you heard that states that have Medicaid work requirements spend more on administration, that more people who are eligible for Medicaid lose insurance, that individuals experience an increase in medical debt, and there is no significant increase in employment? Do you still support work requirements, or do you now oppose them?”
This is a question obviously designed to change the result. Our state tax dollars should not be used to lobby federal legislation through misinformation and electioneering. The majority of the people who took this poll supported “nearly all” people on Medicaid to be “working or looking for work” but you have to read through the spreadsheets to find it.
84% of people in a recent survey said that “able-bodied adults on Medicaid should be working, looking for work, or going to school.” That would be a likely result if the poll were taken in Minnesota. That’s what the BBB bill says. If you are able-bodied, young and healthy, shouldn’t you be looking for work or going to school?
Questions that were not asked:
- Do you think it is fair that a 25-year-old healthy guy who chooses not to work and goes on Medicaid gets seven times the amount of money from the feds for Medicaid as his 100% disabled neighbor who can not work?
- Do you think someone on Medicaid should have to show they are a citizen, live in the state and don’t make too much money to qualify?
- Do you think people on Medicaid should pay something (even a dollar) or should they receive care with no premium, deductible or copay?
- Do you think insurance companies should be paid for people on Medicaid who live in another state, make too much money or are dead?
- Should able-bodied people (21-59) be looking for work, working or going to school if they take Medicaid?
Millions of Americans depend on Medicaid for care. They need the program to survive. The fact is that because Medicaid was expanded to include low- and middle-income healthy people, and the subsidies are bigger for them, the very people who the program was designed to serve (the disabled) have to wait longer for care. Medicaid reform needs to happen to preserve care and cut the deficit.