Health costs are fueling voter stress — and Democratic campaigns
[February 07, 2026]
By ALI SWENSON and JEFF AMY
ATLANTA (AP) — 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.
But many Democrats 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 midterm elections, and fare better than chasing
headlines about the latest outrages out of the White House.
Republicans last year cut around $1 trillion over a decade from Medicaid
and declined to extend COVID-era subsidies that had lowered the cost of
Affordable Care Act health plans.
In response, Democrats are filming campaign spots outside struggling
hospitals, spotlighting Americans facing spiking insurance premiums and
sharing their own personal health care stories.
Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, one of the party's most endangered
incumbents this year, is expected to highlight health care challenges at
a campaign rally Saturday in suburban Atlanta.
“It’s a banger of an issue for Democrats,” said Brad Woodhouse, a
longtime Democratic strategist and executive director of the advocacy
group Protect Our Care. “I think it will be part of every single
campaign, up and down the ballot.”
Republicans defend their votes as reining in ballooning health spending
and cracking down on waste, fraud and abuse, and Trump recently launched
a new website to help patients buy discounted prescription drugs.
However, the party has been unable so far to pass comprehensive
legislation to offset Americans' health costs, despite controlling both
chambers of Congress.
Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist, said the issue would remain his
party's “Achilles' heel” until its leaders draft realistic proposals
that can be turned into law.
Public opinion on health care wasn’t always in the Democrats’ favor
Health care was once seen as a political liability for the left.
In 2010, Democrats lost their House majority after President Barack
Obama’s signature health policy, the ACA, passed without a single
Republican vote. In 2014, they gave up the Senate a year after the Obama
administration fumbled the rollout of Healthcare.gov.
But those tides turned when President Donald Trump “touched the stove”
during his first term, Woodhouse said. The Republican president
supported efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare that would have left
millions uninsured and made it harder for those with preexisting
conditions to get coverage.
Although the legislation failed to pass, health care has since been a
thorny issue for Republicans, a weakness aggravated last year when
lawmakers passed a bill expected to cut more than $1 trillion over a
decade from federal health care and food assistance, largely by imposing
work requirements on those receiving aid and by shifting certain costs
onto the states.
Republicans said the move would stave off abuse of the Medicaid program,
and they added a $50 billion investment in rural health to offset
losses. But that didn’t stop Democratic groups from attacking. Unrig Our
Economy, one left-wing group, said that since 2025 began, it has
funneled more than $12 million into ads criticizing Republicans on
health care.
Democrats saw another opportunity to win voters' support last year, when
enhanced ACA tax credits were headed toward expiration, and they forced
a government shutdown over the issue. The funding wasn't restored but
the party believes they gained political leverage going into this year's
campaigns.
“Republicans own it now,” said Eric Stern, a Democratic media
strategist. “You better believe Democrats are going to be talking about
that.”
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A podium is prepared before Democrats hold news conference on the
health care funding fight on the steps of the House before votes to
end the government shutdown on Capitol Hill, Nov. 12, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
Candidates meet with hospital leaders and showcase emotional
storytellers
Stef Feldman, a Democratic consultant who was an aide to former
President Joe Biden, said she's 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 a third of American adults are
“very worried” about the cost of health care, compared to about a
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 Wisconsin U.S.
House candidate Rebecca Cooke, it’s meant sit-downs 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.
Ossoff, the only Democratic senator seeking reelection this year in
a state that Trump won in 2024, called health care “a life-or-death
question” in a recent campaign video.
At his rally Saturday, one expected speaker is Teresa Acosta, who
frequently stumps for Democratic candidates. She 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.
“I think most people would agree that health care is a human right,”
Acosta said. “And the Republicans seem hellbent on weakening access
to it.”
ACA plans are heavily relied upon in Georgia because it’s one of the
10 states that didn’t expand Medicaid. As a result, advocates have
warned that the expiration of expanded ACA subsidies could leave
Georgia residents uninsured. Recent federal data shows about 14%
fewer Georgians have signed up for plans in 2026 compared to last
year, although those numbers are not yet final.
Republicans want a real fix, not throwing 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.
Carter, who worked as a pharmacist, said an extension amounted to
“throwing more money at a broken system, riddled with waste, fraud
and abuse, without addressing the root cause of skyrocketing costs.”
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 didn't support the subsidies but had
to vote that way to protect his constituents, noting Democrats set
the expiration date in the first place.
However, 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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Swenson reported from New York.
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