Healthcare was the top issue for Iowa Democratic caucus-goers.
Exit polling from NBC News, CNN, and the Associated Press showed healthcare was at the top of voter concerns, with 4 in 10 ranking it ahead of issues such as climate change or foreign policy.
But other polling suggested that healthcare may not be the deciding factor. Data from the NBC News entrance poll also found that two-thirds of voters put a premium on defeating President Trump. The AP poll found 88% said electability was important for the Democratic nominee, compared with 66% who said having the best policy ideas was most important.
The results from the Iowa caucus were still unknown as of Tuesday morning after the app to calculate votes suffered technical glitches. Trump characterized the event as an “unmitigated disaster” and compared it to the 2013 to 2014 incident in which the Obamacare website, healthcare.gov, malfunctioned.
All Democrats vying to compete against Trump in November want to expand government-funded healthcare coverage to different degrees. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have backed “Medicare for all,” which would enroll everyone living in the United States into a private plan and abolish private health insurance. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar have instead called for a system that would allow people the option to buy into a government plan instead of a private plan. Both approaches are opposed by the healthcare industry.
