Health care a top issue for how Florida voters cast their ballots

Health care is a number one issue for Florida voters casting ballots in the Nov. 6 election, according to a recent poll from Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy analysis and journalism group.

The poll says that 26 percent of voters in Florida rank the issue as most important, followed by the economy and jobs (19 percent), gun policy (19 percent), immigration (17 percent) and tax cuts and tax reform (10 percent).

A larger percentage of Florida voters say they are more likely to support a candidate who advocates for passing a national health plan, the poll finds. But voters were divided on their opinion of repealing or keeping the Affordable Care Act, usually known as Obamacare.

A 69 percent majority of Florida voters polled say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who wants to maintain the Affordable Care Act’s protections of people with pre-existing conditions.

Most Floridians polled say that they or a person living in their home has a pre-existing condition.

Expanding Medicaid is also at the top of the list for states such as Florida that have not opted for an expansion that would provide heath care to more disadvantaged people.

Though health care tops the list of important issues, there is a partisan divide, the Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows.

For Democratic and Independent voters, health care is at the top of the list, but Republican voters rank it fourth behind immigration, economy and jobs.

Somewhat surprising data from NextGen Florida shows that health care is also a top issue for young voters. For the roughly 29,000 people who filled out surveys for NextGen Florida about the issues that would motivate them to cast a ballot in November, making health care accessible and more affordable came in as the second most frequently cited issue. (The first was the cost of attending a public college or university.)