Healthcare access and affordability are the top domestic policy concerns for voters heading into the 2026 elections, according to a new Gallup poll.
Nearly 85% of Americans said in a that they are at least somewhat worried about the availability and affordability of healthcare as a key concern for the United States, more than any other issue reported in the survey. Worries about healthcare even eclipsed those about the economy, which had traditionally been a top consideration for voters and had held the No. 1 spot in recent years.
The poll is likely to reassure Democrats that they are on the right track in portraying President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans as cutting healthcare programs to finance tax reductions for the wealthy. Republicans, on the other hand, are likely to take it as a sign that they urgently need to find ways to overhaul their healthcare messaging.
More than 6 in 10 people say they worry “a great deal” about the availability and affordability of healthcare, compared with roughly a third whose top concern is illegal immigration, unemployment, or energy affordability.
Roughly half of voters said they worried a great deal about the economy, inflation, federal spending, and income and wealth distribution.
More households are reportedly trading off other basic needs in order to afford healthcare expenses, according to a separate Gallup poll from earlier this month.
An estimated 39 million people, or 15% of adults, prolonged a current prescription by rationing doses or splitting pills to avoid costs. Another 38 million borrowed money for healthcare expenses. Roughly 28 million people skipped a meal or drove less to save money for health expenses.
About 1 in 3 U.S. adults, 82 million people, used more than one of these trade-off techniques within the past year. A third of those had insurance coverage.
Democrats are hoping to make healthcare the top topic of the political cycle ahead of the midterm elections this fall, following last year’s clash over Obamacare marketplace insurance reform that led to a historic 43-day total government shutdown.
Democrats are highlighting that Republicans failed to come to an agreement to renew enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies, leading to an increase in premium expenses, especially for older people who are not yet eligible for Medicare.
They are also condemning the GOP spending bill passed last summer, which reduced Medicaid spending by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, saying that it will only serve to make healthcare less accessible for patients.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) released a report last week saying that a number of hospitals across the country have reduced services or closed their doors entirely, attributing it to early responses to the phased reduction in funding.
Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to defend their record and also distancing themselves from the more controversial policies in the Make America Healthy Again agenda, such as vaccine reform, which is unpopular with voters.
President Donald Trump outlined for Congress what the White House calls the “Great Healthcare Plan” for health insurance reform, including eliminating subsidy payments for health insurers and instead giving subsidies directly to patients through health savings accounts.
Republican candidates are also emphasizing Trump administration policies intended to lower the costs of prescription drugs, such as the direct-to-consumer prescription platform TrumpRx.
A separate recent poll from the health policy group KFF found that nearly 6 in 10 voters believed that the Trump administration’s prescription drug policies were “not likely” to lower their out-of-pocket costs for medicines.
Democrats and independents are more likely to be concerned about healthcare issues than GOP voters, according to Tuesday’s Gallup survey.
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Roughly two-thirds of independents and 80% of Democrats polled by Gallup said healthcare was their No. 1 concern heading into the midterm elections. Economic issues, including inflation, federal spending, and income distribution, were among their secondary and tertiary concerns.
Slightly more than half of Republicans said illegal immigration was their chief concern, followed by federal spending, drug use, and crime.
For the survey, Gallup polled 1,000 adults in early and mid-March.
