Access to health care – and how to pay for it – was a key issue in this fall’s presidential and congressional elections. More than 6 in 10 Americans (62%) now say it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all Americans have health care coverage, according to a Gallup poll conducted in early to mid-November.

This percentage was the highest in a decade, after dropping as low as 42% in 2013 and climbing as high as 69% in 2006. Public sentiment has ebbed and flowed in recent decades:

• Between 2000 and 2008, consistent majorities of Americans believed the government should make sure all people in the United States have health coverage.
• That changed during Barack Obama’s presidency, as he worked with a Democratic Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act to increase health coverage, sparking opposition by some Americans to a larger government role in health care.
• By 2009, U.S. adults were divided on whether the government was responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans.
• From 2012 through 2014, majorities did not believe the government should have that role, as support among independents and Republicans waned.
• Public opinion shifted back to seeing health care access as a government responsibility in the latter years of Obama’s presidency, and this has been the prevailing view since then.