Democrats hold an advantage over Republicans with voters on the question of which party performs better on healthcare costs, including prescription drugs, even as the GOP makes affordability a central piece of its messaging ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Nearly 4 in 10 voters say they trust Democrats to deliver on lowering prescription drug and healthcare expenses. That’s compared to 28% of voters who trust the GOP and another 27% who trust neither party, according to new polling released Friday from the health policy group KFF.
Nearly 7 in 10 voters surveyed with household incomes less than $90,000 annually reported being concerned about prescription drug prices heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Regardless of income, 22% said they were “very worried,” and another 37% said they were “somewhat worried” about being able to afford prescriptions, amounting to a total of 59%. By contrast, in 2018, only 44% of voters were at least somewhat concerned.
Republican strategists have stressed to candidates the need to focus on healthcare affordability, including various policies President Donald Trump has implemented to decrease prescription costs for average voters.
White House deputy chief of staff James Blair and top Trumpworld pollster Tony Fabrizo have reportedly warned GOP candidates that Democrats will likely attack Republicans on healthcare on the campaign trail, where they historically have had an advantage.
Democrats appear to still have the popular opinion advantage over Republicans on healthcare despite the Trump administration’s efforts to embrace the Make America Healthy Again movement.
KFF’s polling found that partisans are more likely to trust their respective parties, but independents are more likely to trust Democrats over Republicans on lowering prescription costs and healthcare expenses more broadly.
Only 16% of independent voters trust Republicans to lower healthcare costs, and 18% say they think GOP policies will lower drug costs. Roughly one-third of independents say Democrats can lower both healthcare and pharmaceutical prices, while another 4 in 10 trust neither party.
Trump administration messaging appears to have been ineffective at winning over voters, despite measures Trump has taken to lower prescription costs, including by negotiating through “most favored nation” drug pricing deals and setting up the direct-to-consumer website TrumpRx.
Since last summer, Trump administration officials have made more than a dozen deals with pharmaceutical companies, under the threat of tariffs, for them to sell their prescription drugs in the United States for the lowest price they would in comparable international markets.
Although the contents of those deals have largely been kept secret, the administration has highlighted this “most favored nation” agenda as the largest drug pricing achievement in decades.
But nearly 6 in 10 respondents to KFF’s survey say the Trump administration’s policies are “not likely” to lower prescription costs for families like theirs.
Only 7% of those surveyed said they had visited the TrumpRx website, where patients can access coupons for “most favored nation” prices on a limited selection of medications. Only one-third of respondents said they had heard anything about the platform.
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About 4 in 10 respondents said they already used drug discount websites such as GoodRx or manufacturer coupons for their medications.
Another 4 in 10 have done some sort of cost-cutting measure when it comes to prescriptions, including cutting pills in half, skipping doses, replacing a prescription with an over-the-counter drug, or not filling a medication.
