Candidates will likely take aim at health insurance companies on the campaign trail this election cycle, according to new polling.
Eighty-one percent of likely voters said they “would be more likely to vote for a candidate who wants to cut out waste, fraud, and abuse in government health care and health insurance programs,” according to a new survey conducted by the Insurance Watchdog Coalition and OnMessage Public Strategies.
“The cost of health insurance is near the top of the list of affordability issues now, for a big chunk of American voters,” OnMessage pollster Wes Anderson told The Daily Wire.
“I’m sure the insurance companies want themselves not to be in the spotlight, but I think gravity is gonna take us that way, because for too many middle-class families, their health insurance costs are starting to rival their mortgage payments,” Anderson added.
The poll also found that Americans have a 78% unfavorable opinion of health insurance companies, with only 17% viewing them favorably. Respondents said Congress should prioritize health insurance companies, while pharmaceutical companies were also cited as an industry deserving greater scrutiny.
Support for more aggressive action against insurers was also high. Ninety percent of those polled said they believe health insurance companies should be broken up, and 70% said they would be “more likely” to back a political candidate who supports such a move.
Similarly, 84% of respondents said they would back a candidate who “takes on insurance companies to lower costs,” while 86% said they would be “less likely to vote for a candidate funded by big insurance companies.”
The findings come as healthcare costs remain a major issue in Washington. The Trump administration in February launched what it calls “TrumpRx,” an initiative to “find the world’s lowest prices on prescription drugs.”
Broader healthcare policy debates are continuing following the expiration of some Affordable Care Act subsidies at the end of last year. The administration has also proposed drastic changes to the current system through what it has branded “The Great Healthcare Plan.”
“The Great Healthcare Plan stops sending big insurance companies billions in extra taxpayer-funded subsidy payments and instead send that money directly to eligible Americans to allow them to buy the health insurance of their choice,” according to the White House, adding that the plan would also include “a cost-sharing reduction program for healthcare plans.”
The path forward on health insurance policy will likely fall on Congress, as both parties are in a heated battle for control of the legislative branch for the second half of Trump’s term. Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both chambers, and issues like healthcare could be deciding factors for voters in November.
The survey was conducted from April 8-11 among 1,000 likely voters across the United States and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
