Low-income Americans are in favor of an expansion of Medicaid, and believe that the government-sponsored plan provides better health care coverage than private plans, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers.

Study co-author Benjamin Sommers, assistant professor of health policy and economics at HSPH, and colleagues conducted a telephone survey in 2013 of close to 3,000 low-income adults in Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas, with each state adopting a different view on expanding Medicaid.

The researchers discovered that almost 80 percent of those polled reported being in favor of Medicaid expansion, and about two-thirds of those surveyed claimed they are planning to apply for either Medicaid or other private coverage in 2014.

Approximately three-quarters of the surveyed adults said they feel that Medicaid is equal to or better than private health insurance plans. This favorable view was most common among ethnic minorities, those with lower income and education, and those in poor health.

With an abundance of chronic diseases and financial barriers among these groups of Americans, Medicaid appears to provide more potential for them.

“In the debate over whether or not states should participate in Medicaid expansion, we rarely hear the perspectives of those people most directly impacted by policies surrounding Medicaid. Our survey shows that expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is quite popular among lower-income Americans and that they generally consider Medicaid to be good coverage,” said Sommers in a statement.

The findings of the study are published online in Health Affairs.