Health costs are fueling voter stress and powering Democratic campaigns

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — President Donald Trump's second term has presented an array of opportunities for political opponents, from immigration crackdowns and lingering inflation to attacks on independent institutions and friction with overseas allies.

Many Democrats, however, are staying focused on health care, an issue that was once a political liability but has become foundational for the party in recent elections. They insist their strategy will help the party regain control of Congress in the November elections and fare better than chasing headlines about the latest outrages out of the White House.

Republicans last year cut about $1 trillion over a decade from Medicaid and declined to extend COVID-era subsidies that had lowered the cost of health plans under the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats are filming campaign spots outside struggling hospitals, spotlighting Americans facing spiking insurance premiums and sharing their own personal health care stories.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, one of the party's most endangered incumbents this year, said at a rally Saturday attended by more than 1,000 people in an Atlanta suburb that health care is part of Trump's abandonment of working people.

''While prices are going up and jobs are getting harder to find, they decided to let health insurance premiums double for more than 20 million Americans, including more than a million Georgians,'' said Ossoff, the only Democratic senator seeking reelection this year in a state that Trump won in 2024. He said 200,000 people in Georgia had lost their coverage.

Brad Woodhouse, a Democratic strategist and executive director of advocacy group Protect Our Care, said health care is "a banger of an issue for Democrats.''

Republicans defend their votes as reining in ballooning health spending and cracking down on what they call waste, fraud and abuse. Trump recently launched a website to help patients buy discounted prescription drugs.

''They are working every single day to make sure that we bring affordability to the people," said Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

But the party, despite controlling both chambers of Congress, has been unable so far to pass comprehensive legislation to offset Americans' health costs.

Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist, said the issue would remain his party's ''Achilles' heel'' until its leaders draft realistic proposals that can become law.

Public opinion on health care wasn't always in Democrats' favor

In 2010, Democrats lost their U.S. House majority after President Barack Obama's signature health policy, the ACA, passed without a single Republican vote. In 2014, they gave up the U.S. Senate a year after his administration fumbled the rollout of Healthcare.gov.

Those tides turned when Trump ''touched the stove'' during his first term, Woodhouse said, by supporting unsuccessful efforts to repeal and replace the health overhaul, known as ''Obamacare,'' potentially leaving millions of people uninsured and making it harder for those with preexisting medical conditions to get coverage.

Last year Republicans passed legislation to reduce spending on federal health programs and food assistance, largely by imposing work requirements on people receiving aid and by shifting certain costs onto the states.

Republicans said that would stave off abuse of the Medicaid program, and added a $50 billion investment in rural health to offset losses.

Unrig Our Economy, a left-wing group, said it has funneled more than $12 million into ads criticizing Republicans on health care since early 2025.

''Republicans own it now,'' said Eric Stern, a Democratic media strategist. ''You better believe Democrats are going to be talking about that.''

Candidates highlight emotional stories

Stef Feldman, a Democratic consultant who was an aide to former President Joe Biden, said she is hearing from candidates that voters care about health affordability ''more than just about anything else.''

A recent poll from the health care research nonprofit KFF backs that observation. It found that about one-third of U.S. adults are ''very worried'' about the cost of health care, compared with about one-quarter who feel the same way about the cost of groceries, housing or utilities.

For Iowa state Sen. Zach Wahls, who is running for the U.S. Senate this year, tapping into those concerns has meant visits to vulnerable hospitals and tours of pharmacies. For Rebecca Cooke, a U.S. House candidate in Wisconsin, it has meant meetings with hospital leaders and telling personal stories, including about her dad's expensive prostate cancer drugs and the $200 jump in her own ACA premiums.

Teresa Acosta, who frequently campaigns for Democratic candidates, said her ACA policy, which covers herself and two teenagers, including a son with Type 1 diabetes, now costs $520 a month, seven times more than before expanded subsidies went away.

''Ultimately, Trump and congressional Republicans refused to act,'' Acosta said at the Ossoff rally. ''They refused to stand up for the care that me and over 1 million Georgians rely on.''

ACA plans are heavily relied upon in Georgia, one of the 10 states that didn't expand Medicaid. Advocates have warned that the expiration of the expanded subsidies could leave Georgia residents uninsured. Recent federal data shows about 14% fewer Georgians have signed up for plans in 2026 compared with last year, although those numbers aren't yet final.

Republicans say they don't want to throw money at a ‘broken system'

U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, two of Ossoff's top Republican opponents, voted in January against a temporary ACA tax-credit extension that passed the House but languished in the Senate. Both deride the ACA as the ''Unaffordable Care Act,'' a phrase used by Trump, and favor a narrower Republican alternative.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, the Wisconsin Republican fending off a challenge from Cooke, was one of 17 Republicans who voted for the temporary extension. He said he did not support the subsidies but had to vote that way to protect his constituents. He noted that Democrats set the expiration date in the first place.

But Van Orden was also critical of his own party for allowing the tax credits to expire without another solution in place.

''For the last 15 years, when you said health care, they'd dive out the window and barrel roll into a bush and hide,'' Van Orden said. ''We're the party of good policy, and so we should be writing policy, and we need to embrace this.''

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