Tom Zawierucha, 58, a building services worker in New Jersey, wishes the candidates would talk more about protecting older Americans from large medical bills.
Teresa Morton, 43, a freight dispatcher in Memphis, Tennessee, with two teenagers, wants to hear more about how elected officials will help working Americans with cuts they can’t afford.
Yessica Gray, 28, a customer support representative in Wisconsin, is seeking relief from high drug prices and medical bills that have left her and her husband in debt. “How much do you want to pay?” she said. “It’s just something that’s always on my mind.”
Health care is not so clear about this which is increasingly acrimonious presidential campaign. and economy most are already high on the list of voters’ concerns.
But Americans remain worried about paying for medical care, a national survey shows.
Two out of 3 US adults in a new national poll by West Health and Gallup said they are concerned that major health events will result in debt. The same thing said that health care did not get enough attention in the campaign.
To better understand voters’ health concerns as the 2024 campaign draws to a close, KFF Health News partnered with research firm PerryUndem to hold a pair of focus groups last week with 16 people from across the country. PerryUndem is a nonpartisan company based in Washington, DC, that studies public opinion on health care and other issues.
Focus group participants represented a wide range of voters, with some Republican candidates, and others Democrats. But almost all share a common complaint: Neither presidential candidate has talked enough about how to help people struggling to pay for medical care.
“You don’t hear anything about health care costs,” said Bob Groegler, 46, who works in home financing in eastern Pennsylvania. Groegler said she worries she won’t be able to retire because she won’t have enough money to pay her medical bills.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has yet to offer a detailed health care agenda, although he has criticized current legislation and said he has a “concept plan” to improve the Affordable Care Act of 2010, often referred to as Obamacare.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, has made more detailed health care proposals, including legislation signed by President Joe Biden to lower patient bills.
In 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which limits how much Medicare enrollees must pay out-of-pocket for prescription drugs, including the $35 monthly insulin cap. The law also provides additional federal aid to help Americans buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, although this aid will expire unless Congress and the president renew it next year.
Harris said he would expand that assistance and push for new assistance for Medicare enrollees who need home care. He also pledged to continue federal efforts to eliminate medical debt, a national problem that burdens about 100 million people.
But most focus group participants said they were unaware of the proposal, complaining that hot-button issues like abortion have dominated the campaign.
Many also expressed deep skepticism that Harris or Trump would do much to ease the burden of medical bills.
“I believe they are out of touch with reality,” said Renata Bobakova, 46, a teacher and mother outside Cleveland. “We don’t know when we’re going to get sick. We don’t know when we’re going to fall or sprain an ankle. And the price can be astronomical. …
Bobakova, who is originally from Slovakia, said she returned to Europe to give birth to her daughter 10 years ago to avoid the crippling medical debt she knew she would incur in this country. Parents with private health coverage face an average of more than $3,000 in medical bills related to uninsured pregnancies and births.
Another focus group participant said they or someone they knew had left the country to get cheaper prescription drugs. The US has the highest medical costs in the world, research shows.
Some focus group participants, such as Kevin Gaudette, 64, a retired semiconductor engineer in North Carolina, blamed big hospitals, drug companies, and insurance companies for blocking efforts to lower patient costs to protect profits. “I think everybody has a finger in the pie,” Gaudette said.
Martha Chapman, 64, who is also retired and lives in Philadelphia, pointed to what she called “corporate greed.” “I just don’t think it will change,” she said.
In the closing days of the campaign, that cynicism represents a particular problem for Harris, said PerryUndem co-founder Michael Perry, who led two focus groups.
Harris has tried to differentiate himself as a candidate who is more serious about policy and more sympathetic to voters’ economic struggles, Perry said. And in the last few weeks, they have started broadcast a new ad highlight health issues.
But focus group participants who said Democrats appeared to blame both candidates for not addressing America’s health care problems. “They didn’t feel like they were being heard,” Perry said.
However, many participants continued to express hope that an issue as important as health care would receive the attention of elected officials, regardless of political party.
“We’re all human here. We’re all just trying to make it,” said Zawierucha, a building services worker in New Jersey. “If we get sick or have to go in and do something, we should have the peace of mind that we can go in there and not have to worry about paying for the next 20 years.”
“Just give us some peace of mind,” he said.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF – an independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.