Voters Highly Concerned About Health Care and Disapprove of Republican Attacks on Pre-Existing Conditions and the Affordable Care Act
“The new PPP survey…comes amid a surprisingly tight race between Kelly and DiNicola,” says PennLive.
Washington, DC – New Public Policy Polling (PPP) surveys commissioned by Protect Our Care find that health care may be a decisive issue for voters in the Pennsylvania battlegrounds of PA-10, PA-16 and PA-17. Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care, issued the following statement in response to the poll findings:
“It’s clear that Pennsylvanians are deeply concerned about health care. That must worry Scott Perry, Mike Kelly, and Keith Rothfus, who put their party ahead of Pennsylvanians when they voted to bring back the age tax, voted to eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions and stood by while the Trump Administration went to court to throw our health care overboard.”
Key Findings from PPP-Protect Our Care Poll PA-10
- Health care is an important issue to voters when deciding who to vote for. 56% say it is either the most important issue or a very important issue when deciding who to vote for.
- Pennsylvanians are very concerned about the possible consequences of repealing the ACA. 62% of voters think charging people 50+ years old, five times more than younger people for health insurance is a major concern. Eliminating protections for people with pre-existing conditions is a major concern for 57% of voters.
- 57% oppose the Trump administration lawsuit to eliminate the health care law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, including a 42% plurality of Republicans. Pennsylvanians are also less likely to vote for Republicans who stayed silent on this lawsuit. A plurality of voters (42%) say they are less likely to vote for Congressman Perry because of his silence on the lawsuit.
Key Findings from PPP-Protect Our Care Poll PA-16
- Health care is a very important issue to voters when deciding who to vote for. 58% say it is either the most important issue or a very important issue when deciding who to vote for.
- Pennsylvanians are very concerned about the possible consequences of repealing the ACA. 60% of voters think charging people 50+ years old, five times more than younger people for health insurance is a major concern. Eliminating protections for people with pre-existing conditions is a major concern for 62% of voters.
- 57% oppose the Trump administration lawsuit to eliminate the health care law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, including a 41% plurality of Republicans. Pennsylvanians are also less likely to vote for Republicans who stayed silent on this lawsuit. A plurality of voters (42%) say they are less likely to vote for Congressman Kelly because of his silence on the lawsuit.
Key Findings from PPP-Protect Our Care Poll PA-17
- Health care is a very important issue to voters when deciding who to vote for. 60% say it is either the most important issue or a very important issue when deciding who to vote for.
- Pennsylvanians are very concerned about the possible consequences of repealing the ACA. 62% of voters think charging people 50+ years old, five times more than younger people for health insurance is a major concern. Eliminating protections for people with pre-existing conditions is a major concern for 63% of voters.
- 68% oppose the Trump administration lawsuit to eliminate the health care law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, including a 54% majority of Republicans. Pennsylvanians are also less likely to vote for Republicans who stayed silent on this lawsuit. A plurality of voters (47%) say they are less likely to vote for Congressman Rothfus because of his silence on the lawsuit.
The PPP-Protect Our Care Polls Mirror Data from Google Trends Showing that Searches for Health Care Dominate across the State — including in PA-10, PA-16 and PA-17.
- Nearly 60 percent of issue based searches in the counties in PA-17 were on health care.
- In PA-16, health care is the top ranked search in all three counties, by double-digit margins in all counties.
- In PA-10, health care is the top ranked search in six out of nine counties, representing 64 – 44% of searches
Here’s how the PPP-Protect Our Care polls were covered locally:
PennLive: Access to Healthcare is Driving Voters in this Key Pa. Congressional Race, Poll
New polling data out of Pennsylvania’s surprisingly competitive 16th Congressional District drives that reality home, with a bare majority of voters (51 percent) saying they support keeping, and improving, on the Affordable Care Act.
The new survey by Public Policy Polling also shows voters in the race between GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly and Democrat Ron DiNicola giving a clear thumbs-down on President Donald Trump’s job performance (52-44 percent, disapprove), and a clear majority (57 percent) opposing the White House’s support for a court case seeking to eliminate the healthcare law’s protections for people with preexisting conditions.
Nearly six in 10 of the 659 voters who responded to the push-button poll (58 percent) listed healthcare as either a “very” important or the “most” important issue in this November’s mid-term election. And a clear majority of respondents (54 percent) said they voted for Trump in 2016.
The new PPP survey, conducted in conjunction with the advocacy group, Protect Our Care PA, comes amid a surprisingly tight race between Kelly and DiNicola.