Poll: Health care a top issue for voters ahead of midterms

More than 1 in 5 voters, 22 percent, said in a new NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll that health care is their top issue in the November midterm elections.

The economy and jobs followed at 19 percent, with guns at 13 percent, taxes and spending at 11 percent and immigration at 10 percent. 

The poll found Democrats are more likely to consider health care a top issue. 

{mosads}Thirty-two percent of Democrats said health care was a top issue for them, while 17 percent said guns. 

Twenty-six percent of Republicans said the economy and jobs are top issues for them in November, while 15 percent pointed to taxes and spending. 

The poll was conducted June 1–4 among 900 registered voters and has a margin of error of  3.3 percentage points.

The poll is good news for Democrats, who plan to hit Republicans on their health-care record ahead of the midterms. 

Democrats plan to highlight the GOP’s multiple failed attempts to repeal and replace ObamaCare and blame them for “sabotaging” the law and higher premiums. 

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday Congress should dedicate the month of August to health care. 

“After 18 months of trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and deliberately sabotaging our health care system, Republican policies have resulted in major premium increases for millions of Americans,” Schumer wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Americans are ready for the president and Congressional Republicans to stop making the problem worse and instead work in a bipartisan manner to improve our country’s health care system.”

Republicans are unlikely to take Schumer up on his offer, but it’s another opportunity for Democrats to shift the blame on Republicans ahead of the midterms on rising health-care costs. 

However, Republicans argue its Democrats who are vulnerable on the issue of health care. 

“[Democrats] passed Obamacare without a Republican vote. They refused to repeal and replace it, and just a couple of months ago, President Trump, we, all of us on the Republican side, had offered a bipartisan bill that would have lowered rates up to 40 percent,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Fox News Wednesday.

“That’s several thousand dollars on your insurance rate and the Democrats blocked it.”

Democrats didn’t support the bill because it would place new restrictions on abortion.