With Election Day around the corner, the midterm elections have been widely portrayed as a referendum on decades-high inflation, stubbornly expensive gas prices, abortion policy, and the lingering influence of former President Donald Trump, among other issues. But there’s another policy area that may be just as or more important: healthcare costs.
A range of recent surveys showed the public is deeply concerned about annually rising healthcare costs. It’s just the kind of bread-and-butter issue — and frequently a life-and-death one — that can motivate voter choices at the polls, even if it means bucking the party of the candidates they usually vote for.
A Gallup/West Health poll taken June 21-30, for instance, finds that nearly 20% are willing to vote for a candidate from the opposing party who prioritizes the reduction of healthcare costs. Of the entire population surveyed, 87% said a candidate’s intent to reduce the costs of health services was very important or somewhat important when casting their vote.
Notably, Democratic voters were more likely than Republicans to say they would cross party lines. That’s potentially bad news for Democrats, who are trying to keep their skin-of-their-teeth House majority, and similarly slim control of the 50-50 Senate, where they get to run the chamber thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken Feb. 25 to March 20, meanwhile, found that healthcare costs factor into the decisions individuals and families make about insurance coverage and care seeking. According to the foundation, about half of U.S. adults say they have difficulty affording healthcare. And about 4 in 10 said they have delayed or gone without medical care due to cost. Moreover, high costs disproportionately affect uninsured, black, and Hispanic adults.
As a result, per the Kaiser poll, nearly 4 in 10 adults report incurring debt due to medical bills. That includes credit card debt, owing to banks, and to family and/or friends, not to mention getting hassled by collection agencies. Dental services are most often the services delayed due to cost, though prescription drug costs are the most difficult to afford.
Dr. Wayne Winegarden, director of the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute, said the polling results make sense. But voters are wise to be skeptical of promises from candidates, of both parties, about plans to lower healthcare costs.
“Polls typically show that Americans are concerned about healthcare costs. The problem arises over the word ‘promises,’” Winegarden told the Washington Examiner. “Far too many healthcare proposals promise to promote affordability but, in practice, would increase costs, cause restrictions on care, or both. These include comprehensive proposals such as ‘Medicare for all’ and piecemeal reforms such as drug price controls,” he said.
Not that effective policy changes aren’t possible, Winegarden said.
“Improving the quality of care while decreasing costs is an achievable goal, but it requires policymakers to correctly diagnose the problem,” he said. “Healthcare costs are excessive because our health insurance system is failing to serve as effective insurance, patients are unable to control expenditures for routine care, and providers are restricted in their ability to provide innovative new care models.”
And now would be a great time to discuss plans to lower healthcare costs. An August survey from NBC News found that 68% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats express high interest in the midterm elections. Even with a year spent on rampant inflation talk, each candidate seems to have an agenda for making affordable care a reality.
The Senate races in Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio are two of the states to watch most closely on the healthcare policy front.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman promises to fulfill a “moral duty to guarantee quality healthcare coverage” for all. Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, plans, as a senator, to “go after pharmaceutical companies that jack up prices.”
Fetterman’s Republican rival, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has said he will “work to dismantle policies that lead to more expensive prescription drugs for our seniors, and he’ll expand access to private sector plans expanded by President Trump.”
There have been fewer specifics in the Ohio Senate race. Republican nominee J.D. Vance has not explicitly addressed healthcare on his campaign website. Instead, the Hillbilly Elegy author and investor’s campaign website focuses on issues such as education, election integrity, and spending.
Vance’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan, talks up his support of the Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which, according to Ryan’s campaign site, created a “historic impact in lowering healthcare costs for Ohioans.”
Polling data show healthcare costs to be a sleeper issue for voters on Nov. 8. Any candidates recognizing healthcare and its rising costs will surely gain the attention of voters — Democrats and Republicans alike.
