New Voter Survey Findings on Healthcare Issues in Senate Battleground States

COUNCIL FOR AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE

The Council for Affordable Health Coverage commissioned a survey of 1,240 respondents from the nine key Senate battleground states focused on healthcare issues heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Survey Findings:

The cost of healthcare matters to voters, more than even war, jobs, and immigration enforcement.

• 79% of likely battleground voters say the cost of healthcare will be very important to their vote.

  • Just behind the cost of living (85%) and federal taxes and spending (80%), but ahead of other issues including foreign policy and wars (70%), jobs (67%), AI regulation (60%), and immigration enforcement (59%).

Voters support giving federal healthcare dollars to the people rather than insurance companies.

• When asked if the federal government should give ACA money to the people buying policies or the insurance companies, swing state voters choose the people by a 57% to 23% margin.

• A plurality of Democrats agree (49% to 33%) with independents (58% to 20%) and Republicans (64% to 18%).

Republicans have an opportunity to neutralize a traditional deficit in trust on healthcare by emphasizing Democrats’ closeness to the insurance companies.

Republicans trail Democrats by a narrow 45% to 42% percent margin on trust on healthcare, in part because seven of the nine swing states supported President Trump in 2024.

• But when voters are asked who they trust more on healthcare—

  • “a Republican who wants to give healthcare subsidies directly to people to give them more control over the money”, or

  • “a Democrat who wants to continue to pay healthcare subsidies to insurance companies and guarantee healthcare as a human right?”

—the Republican wins by a 46% to 39% margin.

• Voters also think that health insurers and their employees donating twice as much to Democratic candidates as Republican candidates shows that “Democrats are better for insurance companies” rather than “Democrats are better for patients” by a 54% to 22% margin.

Read more here.