Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made a play to seize healthcare as an issue central to his campaign in the fiercely (and densely) competitive race for the Republican presidential nomination. In a nationally covered campaign event last week, Scott introduced his Day One Patient Freedom Plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
The plan includes age-based tax credits for health insurance, allows health plans to be sold across state lines and offers some protection for Americans with pre-existing conditions. Other GOP candidates have signaled they'll campaign on variations of these conservative approaches to healthcare reform.
But it's not at all clear that they will have much resonance with voters, who have indicated that the healthcare issues they care most about now are the ones that affect their pocketbooks.
Americans are most concerned about being able to afford drugs for chronic conditions and want the president and Congress to bring down drug prices, according to recent polls conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Still, 51% of respondents favored marketplace competition over government regulation for keeping drug prices low. Three-quarters of those surveyed said drug companies make too much profit and fewer than half had a favorable opinion of drug companies in general.
Most respondents reported little difficulty affording prescription drugs, but those in poor health and those taking four or more prescription drugs had more trouble. But Bianca DiJulio, associate director of public opinion and survey research for the Kaiser Family Foundation, said most people become aware of prescription drug costs at some point in their lives or know someone who relies on medication.
Katherine Hempstead, who directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's work on insurance coverage, said candidates stumble to address drug costs because there are no easy solutions at hand.
More than 75% of Americans favor price caps on certain high-cost drugs, and about the same percentage would like to be able to buy prescription medications imported from Canada, according to the Kaiser survey.