Healthcare a Vague but Potent Issue for Election 2026
The Host
Healthcare, in particular its rising costs, is a key issue for voters in both parties this fall. But lawmakers are offering a variety of remedies on the campaign trail, suggesting that neither party has an agreed-upon approach.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has apparently backed off a plan — for now — to create a political board to review scientific grant awards from the National Institutes of Health. The pause came after public complaints from Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins of Maine, who is fighting to retain her seat and, possibly, maintain the GOP majority in the upper chamber.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Tami Luhby of CNN, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News.
Panelists
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
- A new KFF-AP rural-voter polling project found that affordability issues are central concerns in rural America. Overall, 48% of rural voters say the economy is worse off than it was at the start of President Donald Trump’s term, and healthcare is one of the key pain points. Findings also indicate that among rural voters — historically a strong Trump constituency — about half still approve of the president’s job performance. Some of these voters, though, said they may sit this election out. That’s notable because the midterms are often determined by who shows up.
- The Trump administration is pushing its anti-fraud agenda as an election issue, using it as a counternarrative to Democrats’ complaints that Republicans’ refusal to extend covid-era Affordable Care Act subsidies led to a large drop in ACA enrollment this year. This week, Vice President JD Vance announced that the administration was cutting 750,000 more enrollees from Obamacare, alleging they are fraudulently enrolled.
- Despite early suggestions that the administration would back away from the anti-vaccine views pushed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both he and Trump this past week continued to push anti-vaccine efforts. Kennedy was the keynote speaker at the conference of the anti-vaccine organization he helped found, while Trump in an Oval Office event suggested that currently administered childhood vaccines be divided into five separate doses.
Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too:
Julie Rovner: KFF Health News’ “The Drugs and Devices Have Been on the Market for Years. But FDA-Ordered Studies Still Aren’t Done,” by David Hilzenrath.
Tami Luhby: The Wall Street Journal’s “RFK Jr.’s Enhanced Security Was Funded With Money From Minority Health Office,” by Liz Essley Whyte.
Joanne Kenen: Slate’s “The Mystery of ‘Medbeds’,” by Molly Olmstead.
Sarah Jane Tribble: Stat’s “GOP Aims To Change Medicare Adviser’s Math So It’s More Favorable to Health Insurers,” by John Wilkerson.
Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:
- KFF Health News and The Associated Press’ “Economic Frustration Tests Trump’s Standing With Rural Voters, New KFF-AP Poll Finds,” by Sarah Jane Tribble, Ali Swenson, and Linley Sanders.
- Axios’ “Midterms’ New Populism: Taking On Health Industries,” by Caitlin Owens and Adriel Bettelheim.
- The Washington Post’s “Secret Contracts Reveal Undisclosed Terms in Trump’s Drug-Pricing Deals,” by Dan Diamond and Riley Beggin.
- The Washington Post’s “White House Budget Chief Pushes for Scrutiny of NIH Grants in Oval Office Clash,” by Dan Diamond and Riley Beggin.
- KFF’s “How TrumpRx Brand-Name Drug Prices Compare to Other Countries,” by Matt McGough, Lynne Cotter, Justin Lo, Imani Telesford, Ashley Ferguson, Avni Gupta, and Juliette Cubanski.
Credits
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