Concerns about the government’s involvement in health care are considerably more pronounced among older Americans, almost all of whom participate in the federal Medicare program, than among younger Americans; just 39% of those under age 30 say they are “concerned that the government is becoming too involved in health care,” while 53% of those age 65 and older do so. Such concern is also more prevalent among men (50%) than women (42%), whites (49%) than blacks (36%), and among higher income groups. Republicans, by more than two-to-one (68% vs. 30%) agree that they worry about the involvement of government in health care, while Democrats disagree by nearly the same margin (66% disagree, 29% agree), resulting in the single largest partisan divide over any of the 77 values questions in the 2009 Pew Research Center values survey. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.