AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Our political divisions are certainly loud, but are they as deep as we think? In a new project called Common Ground, we're focusing on the areas where healthcare is quietly uniting Americans. Our partner in this project is KFF Health News. Joining us now is lead reporter Noam Levey. Welcome.
NOAM LEVEY: Thank you.
RASCOE: Noam, our national opinions about healthcare certainly seem really far apart, but where is there overlap?
LEVEY: Well, I mean, some of this is shared anger, shared frustration. You know, everybody - Democrat, Republican - is getting crushed by medical bills. People are furious about how difficult it is to deal with insurance. There's this feeling that there's too much greed, that the system's become unfair. But, you know, Democrats and Republicans may talk about all this differently, but there's a surprising degree of overlap, and I think the result of some of this is that people believe government could actually be doing more to protect patients. And this is really notable among Republicans.
A little while back, I got to sit in on some Zoom focus groups. They were convened by a couple of pollsters who were speaking with Trump voters. Jason Rouse was one of the Trump supporters. He's a retired firefighter from Michigan who voted for the president three times. And interestingly, he said he wouldn't mind some new government rules to keep his medical bills in check.
JASON ROUSE: I'd like to see a lower cap on what I have to pay out of pocket. I mean, the prices are just ridiculous.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, that sounds like Jason is open to more government healthcare, like maybe Medicare for All.
LEVEY: Well, I don't think that necessarily. Not Medicare for All. I mean, but I think there is this openness to new ideas, like the government capping how much hospitals or drug companies can charge, or the government limiting insurance deductibles and medical bills for folks, or restricting aggressive collections against people with medical debt.
RASCOE: So this is what you're looking for, like, ways that people are trying to fix these problems without letting politics get in the way.
LEVEY: Exactly. Common Ground is going to tell stories of where citizens, community leaders, politicians are already working together. We're going to upstate New York to visit a community where Democrats and Republicans fought side by side to keep a birthing center open after a big hospital system wanted to close it. In Indiana, a bipartisan group of politicians took on high hospital prices. And at a church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Purple Congregation united to tackle medical debt in the community.
RASCOE: It sounds like your reporting is making you feel hopeful.
LEVEY: Yes. Yeah, it really is. You know, not long ago, I hung out with a bipartisan group of cancer volunteers. They were from New York State. And they'd come to Washington and urge Congress to restore funding for medical research. Lexi Mealing was one of them. She's a Democrat from Long Island, cancer survivor, and she told me how inspiring it was to just stand with people together no matter their political differences.
LEXI MEALING: We put all of that aside. Cancer doesn't care about, you know, if you're independent, if you're Republican, if you're Democratic. We're all here together.
LEVEY: I think people are just desperate in some respects to get past the partisan anger out there and to show that they can solve problems that affect everyone.
RASCOE: That's Noam Levey, reporter with KFF Health News. We're partnering with them on a new project called Common Ground. Thanks, Noam.
LEVEY: Thank you.
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