Health care is the top issue for voters heading into the congressional midterm elections, with 71% saying it's "very important," according to a poll released Thursday by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
The economy ranked second, with 64% saying it was very important, followed by gun policy (60%) and immigration (55%).
Kaiser, a health-policy research group, also conducted separate polls in Florida and Nevada, two states with gubernatorial and Senate races in November. The group found that large majorities in those states said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who wants to maintain the Affordable Care Act's protection for people with pre-existing medical conditions, even if it results in higher costs for healthy individuals.
Protecting people with pre-existing conditions was the only issue that made the top 3 for Democrats, Republicans and independents in Florida and Nevada, said Ashley Kirzinger, a senior survey analyst for Kaiser.
"It's because it affects a lot of people," Kirzinger said in an interview. "We found consistently that slightly more than half of people living in the country generally, and in Florida and Nevada, live in a household with someone with a pre-existing condition. For a lot of people this really affects them."
