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U.S. voters are somewhat interested in hearing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump talk about health care costs, but not too interested in their thoughts about coverage quality.
Only 12% of the 1,084 registered voters who participated in a KFF Health Tracking Poll conducted in late August and early September said an issue related to health care finance would be the most important issue for determining their vote in the upcoming presidential elections.
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About 5% cited health care costs as a top issue and 7% said issues related to Medicare and Social Security were their top issues.
For the Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents surveyed, the top health care issue was health care costs and the runner-up was prescription costs: 21% chose health care costs as the top concern and 12% named drug costs as their top concern.
About 6% cited reducing monthly health insurance premiums, and 3% wanted to hear ideas for improving health coverage.
For the Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who participated, the results were similar: 24% named health care costs as the health care issue they most wanted to hear candidates talk about and 9% named prescription drug costs. Just 6% listed insurance premiums as a top issue and 3% listed improving coverage as a top issue.
Only 1% of Republicans said they most wanted to hear about efforts to repeal Obamacare.
Too few voters mentioned issues directly related to employee benefits for those to show up in the list of top voter interests.
The percentage who said they had employer-sponsored health coverage through their own employer or a spouse's employer fell to 41%, from 50% four years earlier.
The percentage with individual coverage increased to 24%, from 22%, and the percentage with individual coverage increased to 12%, from 10%.
Because of Medicaid rule changes adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage with Medicaid increased to 17%, from 9%.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
