The number: 63% — Government-guaranteed health insurance

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) favor a government guarantee of universal health insurance, even if it means raising taxes; 34% are opposed. Democrats continue to be the most supportive of government-guaranteed health insurance — 79% of Democrats, including 85% of liberal Democrats, favor it. A majority of independents (63%) and moderate and liberal Republicans (54%) also say the government should guarantee health insurance for all, even if it means raising taxes. Conservative Republicans disagree; 59% of conservative Republicans oppose government-backed insurance and just 38% favor it. Among religious groups, about half of white evangelicals (53%) favor a government guarantee of health insurance for all. Considerably larger majorities of black Protestants (66%) and Catholics (67%) favor government-funded health insurance, as do 68% of the religiously unaffiliated.

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The Daily Number is a statistic, updated every weekday and typically drawn from Pew Research Center project findings, that highlights an important trend.

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