In Gallup’s 2023 ranking of national concerns, Social Security and Medicare have one of the highest satisfaction rates, at 45%.
The programs rank sixth among the 22 policy areas evaluated this year, with the military at the top of the list with a 64% score. The level of satisfaction with the quality of the environment (44%) is comparable to that of Social Security and Medicare, whereas 15 concerns are rated worse.
Retirement Program Satisfaction
The most recent findings are from the Gallup Mood of the Country survey performed between January 2 and 22, 2023.
Gallup previously released similar policy ratings in advance of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress on February 7 in order to offer Americans insight into the country’s state.
This analysis focuses exclusively on Americans’ satisfaction. In January of most years since 2001, Gallup measured Americans’ satisfaction with Social Security and Medicare, finding that between 31% and 47% of US adults are very or somewhat satisfied with these safety net programs, which play a crucial role in ensuring the financial security of US seniors.
The lowest satisfaction ratings for Social Security, Medicare were recorded between 2003 and 2012, perhaps as a result of public worry about the Social Security system’s financial health at that time.
During this time period, both George W. Bush and Barack Obama appointed commissions to examine the viability of reforming Social Security to maintain its long-term stability, with Bush making it his top domestic priority for a brief period. In the end, neither president was able to implement significant policy reforms.
While not high in absolute terms, public satisfaction with Social Security/Medicare peaked in 2017 (47%) and has been over 40% every year since, with the exception of 2016 (38%), when it dropped.
Seniors Are Satisfied With Social Security And Medicare
As in prior years, older People, the principal recipients of Social Security and Medicare, are significantly more likely to express satisfaction with these programs than younger adults.
Exactly 63% of those aged 65 and over are satisfied with the programs this year, compared to 43% of those aged 50 to 64, 42% of those aged 30 to 49, and 35% of those aged 18 to 29.
Those with lower and intermediate incomes are marginally happier with Social Security and Medicare than adults with higher incomes.
During the duration of Gallup’s trend, partisan gaps in satisfaction with Social Security and Medicare have shifted, conforming to the general pattern in which supporters of the president’s party are more satisfied with national conditions than those of the opposition party.
However, the partisan divide is not as pronounced as on other subjects. Approximately 52% of Democrats, 45% of independents, and 39% of Republicans currently express satisfaction with the programs.
Read more: Millions of people will get up to $4,555 in Social Security payments tomorrow! Are you one of them?
Social Security Is Not Americans’ First Policy Priority
In addition to being more satisfied with Social Security and Medicare than with the majority of other policy areas, Americans have been less concerned about the Social Security system in recent years than they have been about other issues.
Each March, Gallup asks U.S. residents if they worry a lot, a fair bit, a little, or not at all about more than a dozen national concerns. 40% indicated they were very concerned about Social Security last year, and 71% said they were either very or somewhat concerned.
However, it landed in the bottom half of Americans’ list of concerns, well below inflation, crime, and hunger, among other concerns.
