Americans want Congress to focus on cost of healthcare and housing
Washington DC, December 17, 2025 – The cost of living remains the top issue for Americans when it comes to the 2026 congressional elections, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The areas of everyday expenses Americans most want members of Congress to focus on include healthcare, housing, and food costs.
The poll also finds that while a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, they are split between preferring the Democratic Party or the Republican Party to best handle the issue.
This Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted December 3-8, 2025, among 4,434 Americans.
Detailed Findings
1. Cost of healthcare, housing, and food are top areas that Americans would like Congress to prioritize.
- Nearly half of Americans say cost of living would be the most important factor in deciding who to vote for if the 2026 congressional elections were held today (46%). Other issues that rank in the top tier include democratic values and norms (22%) and immigration (15%).
- When it comes to different types of costs, Americans would most like to see members of Congress prioritize the cost of healthcare (34%), followed by housing/rent (22%) and food (20%).
- There’s more support than opposition for policies aimed at cutting the cost of healthcare, including letting Medicare negotiate more prescription drug prices (59% support, 11% oppose) and extending federal health insurance subsidies that are due to expire this year (51% support, 21% oppose).
- Similarly, support outweighs opposition for housing cost-related policies, including streamlining permitting and environmental reviews to build more homes (49% support, 21% oppose) and increasing federal funding and incentives to build more homes (47% oppose, 24% oppose).
2. A majority of Americans support cutting tariffs, disapprove of Trump’s handling of cost of living.
- Overall, 56% of Americans say they think cutting existing tariffs on importing goods would lower the cost of living in the country and 53% support cutting tariffs on consumer goods.
- Most Americans disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling their cost of living (56%).
- At the same time, Americans are split over which party would do the better job handling the cost of living: 34% prefer the Democratic Party’s approach, while 32% prefer the Republican Party’s approach.
3. Americans feel personal responsibility to vote in the 2026 midterms.
- A majority of Americans say they have a duty or personal responsibility to vote in the 2026 congressional election (64%), including 76% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans. A smaller share of independents say the same (48%).
- Democrats are slightly more likely to say they will regret it if they don’t vote in the 2026 congressional election (72%) compared to Republicans (60%). Just 40% of independents say they will regret it if they do not vote in the midterms.
About the Study
This poll was conducted December 3-8, 2025, by Ipsos on behalf of Reuters, using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 4,434 general population adults aged 18 or older.
The study was conducted in English. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race and ethnicity, census region, metropolitan status, education, household income, 2024 vote choice and political party identification. Political party identification benchmarks are from the 2025 NPORS annual survey. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2025 March supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).
- Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45-59 and 60+)
- Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other, Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ Races, Non-Hispanic)
- Education (Less than High School, High School, Some College, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree or higher)
- Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
- Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
- Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
- Political Party ID (Democrat, Lean Democrat, Republican, Lean Republican, Independent/Something else)
- 2024 Vote Choice (Trump, Harris, Another candidate, Did not vote)
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.08. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Alec Tyson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]
Annaleise Azevedo Lohr
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]
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