New Report from Protect Our Care Finds that Health Care is the Most Important Issue for Voters in the 2018 Election Cycle
Washington, DC – In a new report released today, Protect Our Care analyzes polling, public data, advertising spending, candidate statements and more to confirm that health care is is the most important issue for voters in the 2018 election cycle. Health care is the defining issue of this campaign, leading American families to reject Republicans after they have worked to rip away protections for pre-existing conditions, repeal health care, and raise costs, especially for older Americans.
“November’s election will be a health care referendum,” said Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care. “Whether you look at public opinion polling, ad spending or the Republican politicians spinning their wheels trying to rebrand themselves as health care heroes, mounting evidence suggests that when voters head to the polls this November, they will be voting on health care. Health care packs a devastating one-two punch for Republicans — it is both the top issue for voters and the issue where Democrats hold the largest trust advantage over Republicans.”
Protect Our Care’s report, Defined By Health Care: Election 2018, synthesizes all the evidence that health care is the issue in 2018. Among the findings: Health Care is a top Google search in 75 percent of Congressional Districts ; national and district-specific polling of voters confirms health care is the top issue heading into November, and public opinion is decidedly against the Republican repeal-and-sabotage agenda; fifty percent of Democratic ad spending is on health care according to the Wesleyan Media Project, and up and down the ballot, Republicans are breathlessly working to reinvent their records on health care with outright lies.
“Republicans only have themselves and their repeal-and-sabotage agenda to blame for keeping health care a constant, top-of-mind issue for voters,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care. “The Republican health care agenda boils down to this: you pay more for coverage and lose protections that you depend on, but wealthy insurance and drug companies get record tax breaks. It’s deeply unpopular and will cost them this November.”
Protect Our Care unveiled the new report after a press call with leading Democratic pollster Geoff Garin and U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan.
“Health care is the dominant issue in the election because it’s the number one pocketbook issue for voters today,” said Geoff Garin, president of Hart Research. “Importantly, health care and affordable health care is not only the number one issue for people who intend to vote Democratic, but it is also frequently cited by independents and those critical undecided voters.”
“It couldn’t be clearer to me that health care is the number one issue on voters’ minds right now — I hear about it everywhere I go,” said U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan, a health care champion who defeated a pro-repeal incumbent in the 2016 election. “Voters really see the stark contrast between Republicans and Democrats on the issue. They know their lives and their livelihoods are at stake, and they’re going to vote like it.”
Read the full report from Protect Our Care here.