Republican mistrust in healthcare widens US health gap, study finds

Republicans increasingly avoid doctors and vaccines, widening health gaps with Democrats, researchers say

Growing Republican mistrust in the https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/healthcare">healthcare system has widened health disparities between liberals and conservatives, who are more likely to avoid vaccines and the medical system in general, according to a new study.

Neil O’Brian, a political science professor at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill and one of the authors https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02474-9">of the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, said that his team saw two phases to the phenomenon.