New Poll Comes As President Joe Biden and Donald Trump Are Set to Take the Debate Stage on Thursday
Washington, D.C. — Ahead of the first presidential debate, President of Hart Research Geoff Garin joined Protect Our Care to release new polling and highlight how health care remains a top issue to voters. The new Hart Research polling tells a powerful story of the importance for President Biden and Democrats in Congress to keep health care issues front and center during this year’s election, and it includes an oversampling of Black, Latino, and battleground voters. Health care continues to be a winning issue:
- A large majority of voters say health care is an important issue for them in this year’s elections – nearly half say it is very important.
- Standing up to drug companies to reduce prescription costs provides Democrats with a compelling way to connect with voters’ most important pocketbook concerns, as do policies to lower health insurance premiums.
- Democrats win the debate by large margins on voters’ most important health care priorities.
- GOP-backed policies that threaten access to affordable health care alienated significant portions of the Republican base.
“On the issues related to health care, the public is not divided,” said President of Hart Research Geoff Garin. “Even with very clear partisan cues, Democrats have very significant advantages on these issues. We are recommending that Democrats up and down the ballot lean into the issue of health care because it’s something that a large majority of voters care about, especially in this year’s election. Leaning into health care issues is the best way for Democrats to meet voters where they are in terms of their concerns about the cost of living. Meanwhile, there are a number of policies supported by Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump that most Americans oppose and significant segments of the Republican base are alienated by. ”
“The American people are loud and clear: health care is a top priority as we march towards November,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “Democrats want to lower costs, Republicans want to raise costs, it’s that simple. But as MAGA Republicans are doubling down on their health care attacks, our new polling confirms Democratic health care policies are widely popular and gain broad, bipartisan support. While Democrats have delivered lower costs for people across the nation, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are fighting to rip health care away from millions by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Affordable Care Act, slashing Medicaid and Medicare funding, dismantling protections for pre-existing conditions, and raising prescription drug and premium costs. These Republican priorities are unpopular across the board and completely out of step with the American people.”
Key Findings:
A large majority (80%) of voters say that the issue of health care will be very or fairly important to them in voting this year, including 48% who say it will be very important.
59% of voters agree more with Biden and Democrats in Congress on protecting and strengthening the ACA than with Trump and Republicans on repealing the ACA. 
There is broad support (84%) for proactive legislation to expand the drug pricing reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act, including 47% who say they strongly support extending the reforms.
The likelihood of voting for a Republican candidate dramatically drops based on Medicare policy proposals with 68% saying they much less like or somewhat less likely to vote for a candidate who voted to cut tens of billions of dollars in funding for Medicare.
77% of voters have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of Medicaid with 39% having a very favorable opinion of Medicaid. These results show that Democrats benefit from pushing back hard against Republican proposals for draconian cuts to Medicaid.
