The most important healthcare issues to voters

For the poll, West Health and Gallup surveyed 3,660 people between Sept. 9 and Sept. 16, including 2,398 respondents who were surveyed before the Sept. 10 presidential debate and 1,262 who were surveyed after. According to Gallup, attitudes reported in the poll didn't vary significantly for respondents interviewed before and after the debate.

The poll found that two-thirds of Americans said healthcare isn't receiving enough attention during the 2024 presidential campaign, while just over a quarter said it's receiving the right amount of attention. 

According to the poll, a candidate's position on protecting Medicare and Social Security is either the single most important or among the most important healthcare-related issues in determining nearly two-thirds of Americans' votes in the upcoming election.

Meanwhile, more than half of voters said that a candidate's position on lowering the cost of healthcare was either the single most important or among the most important healthcare-related issues in determining their vote.

The importance of different healthcare-related issues varied by age group, with Americans ages 65 or older significantly more likely than Americans ages 18 to 49 to say a candidate's position on protecting Medicare and Social Security and lowering drug costs are among the most important issues or the single most important issue determining their vote.

By contrast, younger and older voters placed roughly equal importance on a candidate's positions on lowering healthcare costs and their mental healthcare policies.

The importance of various healthcare-related issues varied by party as well. Democrats were more likely than Republicans and independents to say that all four healthcare-related issues mentioned in the poll were the single most important or among the most important issue determining their vote.

However, a majority of voters in both parties as well as a majority of independent voters said that protecting Medicare and Social Security was the single most important or among the most important issues in determining their vote.

When asked which presidential candidate they trust more on a variety of healthcare-related issues, results generally fell along party lines. A majority of Republicans said former President Donald Trump is more trusted to handle the issues and a majority of Democrats trusted Vice President Kamala Harris.

However, political independents were slightly more likely to report trusting Harris over Trump on healthcare issues, especially on topics like improving access to care and insurance coverage, as well as protecting or strengthening Medicare.

Meanwhile, roughly a third or more of independents said they don't trust either candidate across all the healthcare issues polled.

"Americans remain concerned over high healthcare prices and the future of Medicare and Social Security even though other issues dominate during this election cycle, and this is especially true for older Americans, a significant voting bloc," said Timothy Lash, president of West Health Policy Center. "Americans across all political stripes want to know where candidates stand on these critical issues and do not think they've heard enough yet. It will be interesting to see how the candidates and political parties address this." (Fioroni, Gallup release, 9/30; West Health release, 9/30)

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