Health care has faded into the background of the election campaign as Donald Trump himself has become the issue on the Republican side and the debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over health care has shifted to other topics. This doesn’t mean that health will be the No. 1 or No. 4 factor when Democrats and Republicans vote in November. As the chart also shows, issue priorities are closely bunched, and my experience has been that voters cast ballots in presidential elections on the basis of their overall views of the candidates rather than candidates’ specific positions on issues.
When people say health care is an extremely important voting issue, they aren’t always thinking of the ACA. Among Republicans who say health is “extremely important” to their vote, about equal shares are thinking about the ACA as are thinking about issues such as access to care and health-care costs. Nor are Democrats always intending to support the ACA when they cite health as a voting issue. They are more likely to cite improving access or addressing costs generally as their reason for naming health a top voting issue.
HENRY KOTULA 