Voters say the cost of health care will be a major factor in how they vote in this year’s midterm elections. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Voters, including those in the Make America Healthy Again movement, say rising health care costs are a grave issue that will influence who they support in the November midterm elections, according to a poll released Wednesday by KFF.
Sixty-one percent of respondents questionnairewho asked how critical several health-related issues are, said the price of health care will have a huge impact on which party she supports because control of Congress will hang in the balance.
Among MAHA voters, who are mostly Republicans but also include independents and some Democrats, 42% said costs would be their top concern heading into the election.
“Although the issue of health care costs is more important to Democratic voters than to Republican voters, a greater share of supporters say health care costs will have a large impact on their voting decisions than the same can be said about vaccine policy or food safety,” the study found.
72% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 47% of Republicans said health care costs would have a major impact on the candidate of the party they voted for.
Vaccine policy came next, with 57% of Democrats, 46% of independents and 32% of Republicans saying it would have a major influence on their choice.
Food safety issues came in third place after 43% of Democrats, 40% of independents and 38% of Republicans said it would have a major influence on their choice of candidate.
MAHA problems
For MAHA voters, twice as many people cited health costs as their first priority than the next issue: limiting the apply of certain chemical additives in food, which was a top concern for 21%.
Ten percent were interested in politicians re-evaluating vaccine approvals, 8% want lawmakers to limit corporate interest in food, and 8% want Congress to limit the apply of pesticides in agriculture. Eleven percent answered none of these questions or had no answers.
The survey found that huge majorities of Americans across the political spectrum believe the government has not done enough to address the problem of chemical additives in food or the apply of pesticides in agriculture, two of the main demands of MAHA supporters.
“Public perceptions that there is insufficient regulation may be due to broader skepticism about the industries themselves,” the study said. “Most American adults do not trust pharmaceutical companies, food and beverage companies, or agricultural companies to act in the best interest of the public.”
The most trusted source of information was physicians and healthcare providers (70%), followed by agricultural companies at 40%, food and beverage companies at 25%, and pharmaceutical companies at 21%.
75% of respondents said the government had not done enough to regulate chemicals in food, and 65% said it should do more to regulate pesticides in agriculture.
The poll of 1,343 U.S. adults was conducted April 14-19. The margin of error is 3 percentage points for the full sample and 6 percentage points for MAHA supporters.
