Elections

About two-thirds (65%) of voters say a candidate’s support for continued protections for people with pre-existing health conditions is either the “single most important factor” or “very important” to their vote in the upcoming midterms elections, finds the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll. That’s a larger share than says the…

The July 2018 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that a candidate’s position on continuing coverage for pre-existing conditions tops voters’ list of priorities when it comes to who they’ll vote for in the 2018 midterms. Additionally, 6 in 10 Americans say President Trump and his administration are trying to make the Affordable Care Act fail, and about half say that this is a bad thing.

Half in Non-Expansion States Support Their State Expanding Medicaid; More if Tied to Work Requirements With less than four months to go until the Congressional midterm general election, a candidate’s position on continuing protections for people with pre-existing health conditions is at the forefront of the many health care issues…

The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll continues to find pre-existing conditions as a widespread concern with most Americans saying it is very important that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) protections for people with pre-existing conditions remain law. With health care costs continuing to be a major topic in the 2018 campaigns, the poll looks at the public’s experiences with unexpected medical bills and finds that this tops a list of possible problems people could face. In addition, the poll examines the public’s views of President Trump’s contentious relationship with prescription drug companies.

Medicaid provides health insurance coverage for more than 76 million Americans, supplies funding for safety-net providers, and is the largest source of federal revenues for states. At this time last year, Congress was debating repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as well as more fundamental changes to Medicaid financing. While federal legislative changes to Medicaid did not pass in 2017, the outcomes of the 2018 elections will shape program changes at both the state and federal levels of government. Our state-specific fact sheets provide background information about Medicaid and the upcoming elections.

While not typically an election issue, Medicaid — particularly the Medicaid expansion created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — was an important issue in the 2018 midterm elections in a number of campaigns throughout the country. This fact sheet highlights key states in which the results of the 2018 midterm elections have implications for Medicaid adoption or implementation. States examined include those that had Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives as well as states that have not yet adopted or implemented expansion but elected governors who support Medicaid expansion. In these states that had gubernatorial races with implications for Medicaid expansion, it will be important to monitor changes in the composition of state legislatures, as governors in most states will need to work with their legislatures in order to adopt the expansion.

In this Axios column, Drew Altman reports on new KFF focus groups with voters. They show voters are focused on the problems they have paying for care and navigating the health system, but have yet to tune in on the health proposals being made by candidates and elected officials, and don’t see them as relevant to their problems. 

In anticipation of upcoming Democratic presidential debates, this poll finds that Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that health care is a top issue they want to hear candidates talk about. When asked to say in their own words what health care issue they specifically want to hear about, affordability emerges as one of the top issues. The poll also probes the public about different possible implications of implementing a Medicare-for-all plan and finds that most Americans don’t realize how dramatically such a proposal would revamp the current health care system.

As Congress and the Democratic presidential candidates continue to discuss Medicare-for-all and other proposals to expand public health coverage, most Americans know little about how the leading Medicare-for-all proposals would reshape the way all Americans get and pay for health care. This month’s KFF Health Tracking Poll probes the public’s…

Universal coverage is a big and important goal. But would absolutely everyone be covered under current proposals? Is it a better rallying cry for Democrats in the primaries or the general election? Drew Altman analyzes these questions in an Axios column.