Health care costs continue to top the public’s list of economic anxieties, even as fuel prices and economic uncertainty rose following the start of the Iran war, a new KFF Health Tracking poll finds. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults are worried about being able to afford health care costs, including three in ten who say they are “very worried.” The same share (64%) are worried about gasoline or other transportation costs, up from about half (52%) in January.
Underscoring these concerns, nearly half of insured adults (46%) say that lowering out-of-pocket costs is their most-wanted change to their health insurance. Additionally, majorities of voters say health care costs will have a “major impact” on their decision to vote (55%) and which party’s candidate they support (61%).
While the poll finds that voters trust Democrats more than Republicans to address both health care costs (37% vs. 26%) and prescription drug costs (33% vs. 26%), voters are more likely to trust Republicans on the issue of fraud and waste in government health care programs (34% vs. 26%)—an issue on which the Trump administration has been particularly engaged.
