Among Swing Voters, Inflation and Health Care Costs are Top of Mind

January 31, 2022

The high cost of health care has been at or near the top of voters’ concerns in recent election cycles. According to a series of focus groups with swing voters commissioned recently by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), high prices for everything are now their chief worry, with the issue of inflation and the high cost of health care being raised unprompted in every listening session.

Nonetheless, these voters aren’t demanding radical or systemic change in America’s health care system. They mostly expressed satisfaction with their current health insurance, as well as the outcomes of their own interactions with their health care providers. They have little knowledge about proposals in Washington aimed at lowering medical and drug costs.

“What these pivotal voters want most are simple, direct, and concrete actions that help them lower their medical and drug bills,” said PPI President Will Marshall. “For example, they strongly favored PPI’s proposal for capping out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.”

Conducted by IMPACT Research (formerly ALG Research), the focus groups took a deep dive into all aspects of health care. They consisted of five diverse groups of swing voters — senior men in Philadelphia and college educated suburban women in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Latino men and college educated suburban women in Arizona; and college educated men in Georgia and Black women in Georgia.

Here are key takeaways from IMPACT Research’s report:

1. Inflation is the most top of mind issue to these voters and they are especially sensitive to any cost increases in their daily lives, health care included. Most are acutely aware that their health care costs have risen unabated year after year.
2. They don’t dislike their current insurance and have very positive things to say about their own point-of-care experiences. Their concerns about cost aren’t enough for them to want to swap the current system for something similar to the nationalized health care systems in Canada or England.
3. Neither party is trusted to bring down health care costs. Although Democrats have taken the lead in Washington on health cost containment, even Democrats in these groups don’t give the party any credit for these efforts because they don’t see their medical bills going down.
4. None of the participants had any real knowledge of or strong preferences for reforms or policy solutions under debate in Washington to bring down health care or prescription costs. This includes allowing Medicare to negotiate drug pricing, which many assume already happens.
5. What they are looking for are concrete ways to help lower out-of-pocket costs their insurance doesn’t cover. They enthusiastically favor a direct approach — capping out-of-pocket prescription costs as a percent of income or total annual expenses.
6. They are less interested in indirect measures to control the costs of care and prescriptions, or wholesale change that compromises the quality, choice, and access that to them defines the American health care system. Some voters are also wary of too-harsh restrictions that could results in less innovation which they see as a positive attribute of our current system.

Read the full brief here.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

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Media Contact: Aaron White; awhite@ppionline.org