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WASHINGTON (AP) -- About half of rural voters identify with Make America Healthy Again, a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump administration, but most said President Donald Trump's healthcare policies have not benefited their communities, according to a new poll from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF.
About 8 in 10 rural voters -- an important voting bloc for Trump and fellow Republicans -- said the Trump administration's policies have had a negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live. Most MAHA supporters, 68%, also feel this way, according to the national survey of more than 2,000 rural registered voters.
The findings signal an apparent disconnect between the Trump administration's MAHA-branded policy priorities and rural America's perception of their reach and effectiveness.
The survey indicates voters are noticing "this weird split in the Trump administration" between what Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., messages and what Trump says and does, said David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University.
In Iowa, concerns about what's causing rising cancer rates are "a big deal," he said. For many people who identify with MAHA, being healthy includes taking on corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies that they think cause cancer, he added.
In the poll, views on healthcare access and costs largely diverged along party lines. Most Democratic and independent voters said the Trump administration's healthcare policies have had a negative impact on their healthcare costs and the health and well-being of people in their communities. Republicans were likelier to say there hasn't been an impact.
Nearly half of rural voters said their communities don't have enough doctors or other healthcare providers, and even more said there aren't enough mental health workers specifically. The share of rural voters who said their community does not have enough hospitals increased to 35% from 21% in a similar question asked in a KFF-Washington Post survey in 2017.
And as with the general population, healthcare, gas and grocery costs are top pain points. At least 6 in 10 rural voters said they were worried about healthcare costs.
The level of worry varied based on coverage, with rural voters enrolled in employer plans or Medicare less likely to be worried. The survey found that 80% of working-age rural voters on Medicaid were very or somewhat worried about healthcare costs. Last year, Republicans passed a tax and spending bill that cut more than $900 billion in projected Medicaid spending over a decade and mandated new eligibility requirements.
Like the general population, rural voters said they trust their own doctors and healthcare providers for health information over government agencies or officials, according to the poll.
Trust in Kennedy and Trump fell largely along partisan lines. About 10% of rural Democratic voters reported having a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in Kennedy, compared with 74% of rural Republican voters. About 5% of rural Democrats and 69% of rural Republicans said they trust Trump a "great deal" or "fair amount" for reliable health information.
While Make America Great Again and MAHA identities are "linked in a lot of ways," the rising costs of healthcare and groceries pose a challenge for those committed to the MAHA principles that Kennedy promotes, said Peterson, the Iowa State professor.
The poll of 2,241 U.S. adults registered to vote in rural areas of the country was conducted Aug. 12-24, using a sample drawn from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In collaboration with AP, KFF researchers worked to design the survey sample and questionnaire, analyze and report findings.
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This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues.