Another national survey is confirming that health care is at the top of the issue list for voters as they look to the 2018 midterm elections. This time it's Gallup, and it's "the fifth year in a row, and 13th overall, that healthcare has either been first or tied for first among the issues." Those five years are dominated by one story: Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But this year, that concern is very high.
Fifty-five percent of Americans worry "a great deal" about the availability and affordability of healthcare, topping concerns about 14 other issues Gallup tested. Slim majorities also worry about crime and violence, federal spending and the budget deficit, and the availability of guns. Unemployment and affordable energy rank last. […]
Healthcare has been a common concern for Americans, with the percentage worrying a great deal about it eclipsing most other issues over the past two decades. Passage of the Affordable Care Act did little to ease anxiety about the issue—and with President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress taking steps to undo key provisions of the law, Americans' anxiety about the healthcare situation should persist.
This isn't the first polling to find health care as the top concern for voters. The exit polling in both last fall's governor's race in Virginia, this month's special election in Pennsylvania and Senate battleground state polling have all found that it tops the list of voters' worries. And in every case, that concern has favored the Democrats.
Affordability and accessibility are the top concern, which isn't going to subside now that Republicans—with Sen. Susan Collins in the lead—sabotaged the last chance at passing legislation to stabilize the markets to try to keep costs down with unrelated, unnecessary anti-abortion language. That's going to lead to an October surprise Republicans are already fearing: headlines screaming about double-digit premium increases. They've done themselves no favors by spending eight years talking about repealing Obamacare and offering nothing else in return.
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