Nearly 4 in 5 Adults Say Healthcare Policy Will Influence How They Vote

The survey results were released less than a month before Election Day.

Nearly 80% of adults said that healthcare policy will influence their votes in the upcoming election, according to a Sapphire Digital survey released Wednesday morning.

Half of those respondents indicated that healthcare policy will "most influence or heavily influence their votes compared to other policy issues."

One-third of adults said they want both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden to prioritize lowering healthcare costs as part of their respective policy goals.

The survey results were released less than a month before Election Day.

“There have been many moving pieces in health care this year, including COVID-19 which has pushed health care policy and price transparency to the forefront of Americans’ minds,” said Kyle Raffaniello, Chief Executive Officer of Sapphire Digital. “As the industry moves to increase price transparency, we must educate consumers about the easy-to-use tools available through their health plans to shop for and select health care that meets their needs both from a cost and quality perspective.”

Additional survey findings:

Almost half of the respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic made healthcare price transparency "more important to them than before.
Nearly 70% said they would research costs of procedures before going in for treatment if "there was an easy way to view the total medical cost for the procedure or their personal out-of-pocket costs."
Still, one-third of respondents said the healthcare system is "too complex and not easy to navigate."
Going forward, over half of respondents indicated that they will make changes to how they select care and one-third said that more information on their "total health financial position and a clear explanation of their benefits" would make it easier to save.

Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.