Tom Zawierucha, 58, a building services worker in New Jersey, wishes candidates would talk more about protecting older Americans from big medical bills.<\/p>\n
Teresa Morton, 43, a freight dispatcher in Memphis, Tennessee, with two teenagers, wants to hear more about how elected officials would help working Americans saddled with unaffordable deductibles.<\/p>\n
Yessica Gray, 28, a customer support representative in Wisconsin, craves relief from high drug prices and medical bills that have driven her and her husband deep into debt. \u201cHow much are we going to pay?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something that\u2019s always on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health care hasn\u2019t figured prominently in this increasingly acrimonious presidential campaign. And the economy has generally topped the list of voters\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
But Americans remain intensely worried about paying for medical care, national surveys show.<\/p>\n
Two in 3 U.S. adults in a recent nationwide poll<\/a> by West Health and Gallup said they\u2019re concerned a major health event would land them in debt. A similar share said health care isn\u2019t getting enough attention in the campaign.<\/p>\n To better understand voters\u2019 health care concerns as the 2024 campaign nears an end, KFF Health News worked with research firm PerryUndem<\/a> to convene a pair of focus groups last week with 16 people from across the country. PerryUndem is a nonpartisan firm based in Washington, D.C., that studies public views on health care and other issues.<\/p>\n The focus group participants represented a broad swath of the electorate, with some favoring Republican candidates, and others Democrats. But nearly all shared a common complaint: Neither presidential candidate has talked enough about how they\u2019d help people struggling to pay for medical care.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t really hear anything much about health care costs,\u201d said Bob Groegler, 46, who works in residential financing in eastern Pennsylvania. Groegler said he\u2019s worried he may never be able to retire because he won\u2019t have enough money to pay his medical bills.<\/p>\n Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, hasn\u2019t offered a detailed health care agenda<\/a>, though he criticizes current laws and said he has \u201cconcepts of a plan\u201d to improve the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare.<\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, has laid out more detailed health care proposals<\/a>, including building on legislation signed by President Joe Biden to lower patients\u2019 bills.<\/p>\n In 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which limits how much Medicare enrollees must pay out-of-pocket for prescription drugs, including a $35 monthly cap on insulin. The legislation also provides additional federal aid to help Americans buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, though this aid will expire unless Congress and the president renew it next year.<\/p>\n Harris has said she will expand the aid and push for new assistance to Medicare enrollees<\/a> who need home care. She also has pledged to continue federal efforts to relieve medical debt<\/a>, a nationwide problem that burdens about <\/a>100<\/a> million people<\/a>.<\/p>\n But most of the focus group participants said they knew little about these proposals, complaining that hot-button issues like abortion have dominated the campaign.<\/p>\n Many also expressed deep skepticism that either Harris or Trump would do much to lighten the burden of medical bills.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe they\u2019re out of touch with our reality,\u201d said Renata Bobakova, 46, a teacher and mother outside Cleveland. \u201cWe never know when we\u2019ll get sick. We never know when we\u2019ll fall down or sprain an ankle. And prices really can be astronomical. \u2026 I\u2019m constantly worried about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Bobakova, who is from Slovakia, said she went back to Europe to give birth to her daughter 10 years ago to avoid crippling medical debt she knew she\u2019d incur in this country. Parents with private health coverage face on average more than $3,000 in medical bills<\/a> related to a pregnancy and childbirth that aren\u2019t covered by insurance.<\/p>\n Other focus group participants said they or people they knew had left the country to get cheaper prescription drugs. The U.S. has the highest medical prices in the world, research shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several focus group participants, such as Kevin Gaudette, 64, a retired semiconductor engineer in North Carolina, blamed large hospitals, drug companies, and insurers for blocking efforts to lower patients\u2019 costs to protect their profits. \u201cI think everybody has their finger in the pie,\u201d Gaudette said.<\/p>\n Martha Chapman, 64, who is also retired and lives in Philadelphia, pointed to what she called \u201ccorporate greed.\u201d \u201cI just don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In the closing days of the campaign, that cynicism represents a particular problem for Harris, said PerryUndem co-founder Michael Perry, who led the two focus groups.<\/p>\n Harris has tried to distinguish herself as the candidate who is more serious about policy and more sympathetic to voters\u2019 economic struggles, Perry said. And in recent weeks, she\u2019s begun airing new ads<\/a> highlighting health care issues.<\/p>\n But even focus group participants who said they lean Democratic seemed to blame both candidates for not addressing Americans\u2019 health care concerns. \u201cThey\u2019re not feeling listened to,\u201d Perry said.<\/p>\n Many of the participants nevertheless continued to express hope that an issue as important as health care would someday get the attention of elected officials, regardless of political party.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all human beings here. We\u2019re all people just trying to make it,\u201d said Zawierucha, the building services worker in New Jersey. \u201cIf we get sick or have to go in and get something done, we should have that peace of mind that we can go in there and not have to worry about paying it off for the next 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust give us some peace of mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n