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 Their hopes lie with voters like Joyell Anderson, who went for
President Donald Trump in 2016 and said she generally votes
Republican. This year, she is not sure who to support for Congress,
but she knows what her top priority is: healthcare.
The 43-year-old stay-at-home mother, who suffers from diabetes,
anxiety and depression, is one of more than 400,000 low-income
Kentucky residents who obtained Medicaid coverage under President
Barack Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act. Barr's vote last year to
repeal Obamacare scared Anderson.
In 2016, she said, her top concerns were jobs and the economy,
having grown up in a family of coal miners. Now, she worries about
losing Medicaid and about work requirements introduced by the
state's Republican governor.
Politicians "need to think about us ordinary people," she said,
speaking at the rural health clinic that provides her care. "(We
could) lose our benefits. And then what's going to happen?"
Kentucky's sixth congressional district, where two well-funded
Democrats are running in a May primary to see who will stand against
Barr in November, has in recent years gone solidly Republican. Barr
won 61 percent of the vote in 2016.
Republicans say they are confident that Barr's support will remain
solid this year. "Both Democratic candidates are currently too busy
fighting each other over who’s the biggest progressive — a surefire
way to lose in a district where voters don’t subscribe to their
liberal brand of politics," said Jesse Hunt, spokesperson for the
National Republican Congressional Committee.
But many analysts see enthusiasm for the party weakening in the
district and have identified it as one of several dozen seats
Democrats might be able to pick up in the House of Representatives.
Democrats believe that voter concerns over rising medical costs and
Republican plans to cut Medicare and Medicaid will assist them in
their fight to retake the House and are urging candidates to
emphasize the issue, particularly in swing districts.
Republican strategists are encouraging their candidates to focus
more on the economy in November's election. When they do talk about
healthcare, many Republican candidates, including Barr, are warning
voters that a Democratic majority would usher in socialized
medicine.
Graphic: Voters say healthcare top concern, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2qaqXor
PROTECTORS OF HEALTHCARE
Residents of Kentucky's sixth district, home to both the city of
Lexington and to rural towns struggling with the loss of coal jobs,
have reason to focus on healthcare. People there suffer from lung
disease at rates that far outstrip those in the rest of the country
and drug overdose rates in parts of the district are among the
highest in the nation.
Obamacare has deeply affected the area, mostly due to Medicaid's
expansion. After the health law took effect, the share of district
residents with health insurance rose by 8.1 percentage points,
nearly twice the national average, according to a Reuters analysis
of Census Bureau data.
"Obamacare is a good thing," said Jerry Harris, 66, who likes the
job Trump is doing but describes himself as a Democrat. He relied on
an Obamacare exchange plan before he was eligible for Medicare and
has a daughter on Medicaid.
"I want to hear candidates talking about bringing down costs," he
said.
Democratic candidates nationwide are being encouraged by the party
to cast themselves as protectors of healthcare. Last month, House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged congressional Democrats headed
home for the spring recess to focus on "Republicans' relentless
efforts to dismantle the health care of seniors and families across
America."
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Barr's main Democratic challengers feature healthcare as a top
concern on their campaign websites. One of them, Lexington Mayor Jim
Gray, says his number one issue is protecting and fixing healthcare.
"We cannot go back to a time when the insurance companies called the
shots and denied coverage for pre-existing conditions," he writes.
The Democrats' other top contender, former Marine fighter pilot and
mother of three, Amy McGrath, says Barr has failed to deliver
meaningful healthcare reform. For years, she says, Republicans
promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better.
"That's the reason I'm running; I'm tired of the lies," she said in
an interview.
Barr's campaign website focuses on themes Republicans are
emphasizing this year: cutting government spending, balancing the
federal budget and creating jobs. His "vision" section does not
mention healthcare.
His most important message this year, he says, is economic. “When
the people that I represent sent me to Washington, they wanted me to
focus on growing the economy,” Barr said in an interview. “We’ve
done that in a dramatic way.”
On healthcare, Barr said he believes voters are still angry over
rising health insurance costs under Obamacare and that his message
that the program has failed still resonates.
Barr also warns voters that, with Democrats in control, “bureaucrats
in Washington D.C. will be in charge of your personal healthcare.”
Graphic: Insurance coverage has surged in some congressional
districts, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2FbSfEB
‘LENS OF THEIR OWN LIVES’
Since Trump took office more than a year ago, Americans increasingly
cite healthcare as the nation’s biggest problem, ahead of the
economy, immigration and crime. A March Reuters/Ipsos survey of more
than 12,000 adults found that healthcare was the top concern of more
respondents than any other issue.
Recent Reuters/Ipsos polling and data analysis has also found that
healthcare concerns of older, white, educated voters could tip the
scales toward Democrats in tight congressional races.
More than two dozen Republicans and Democrats interviewed in
Kentucky’s sixth said they were dissatisfied with current policies,
but their ideas for reform did not necessarily dovetail with their
parties’ platforms.
Former horse trainer Mary Bennett, 45, for example, said she voted
for Trump but has not decided whether she will vote at all in
November. Like many Republicans, she says Congress should get rid of
Obamacare. But her ideal solution is one embraced by the most
liberal of Democrats: Put everyone on Medicare.
Both Democratic and Republican strategists acknowledge that views on
healthcare are complicated.
“I don’t think people generally look at healthcare and regurgitate
the Republican view or Democratic view,” said Matt Mackowiak, a
Republican consultant. “They look at it through the lens of their
own lives.”
(Additional reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Michele Gershberg
and Sue Horton)
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