A recent poll indicates that 57% of Americans are concerned about rising medical costs attributed to tax cuts and cuts in welfare. This finding, from a CBS/YouGov survey, seems significant, especially with only 13% believing that the new legislation—referred to as the “big beautiful bill”—would lower healthcare expenses.
The Congressional Budget Office hasn’t finalized its assessment yet, but previous estimates suggested that around 16 million people might lose their health insurance by 2034 with the earlier version of the bill. This has prompted many Democratic leaders to voice strong concerns. Healthcare advocates continue to emphasize that the final legislation could severely affect communities dependent on Medicaid.
The proposed measures include drastic reductions to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and other welfare programs, alongside permanent extensions of temporary tax cuts initially enacted during Trump’s presidency. A Yale Budget Lab study suggested that the primary benefit of this package skews towards the wealthy.
Democrats have criticized the legislation as a substantial shift of wealth from poorer demographics to richer ones, particularly focusing on its implications for healthcare in the lead-up to 2026.
According to the CBS/YouGov survey, about 60% of respondents disapproved of the GOP’s megabill, with a similar percentage believing it would favor the affluent over the less fortunate. Another survey, conducted by AP-NORC, found that nearly two-thirds of people felt the law would primarily aid the wealthy.
In that same CBS/YouGov poll, 40% of participants expressed the view that the proposed measure would lead to increased taxes, while 32% thought there would be no change in taxes at all.
A majority—56%—of those surveyed linked their opinions on the megabill to their assessment of Trump’s potential second term. Meanwhile, 44% admitted they had a general understanding of the law without much specific detail, and around 20% acknowledged they only had a vague idea of its contents.
This CBS/YouGov poll was conducted between July 16 and July 18 and included 2,343 respondents with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
