Democrats and Republicans Share Dueling Health Care Messages in Final Midterms Push

When Representative Derrick Van Orden, an endangered Republican congressman in western Wisconsin, appeared recently with hospital executives, he said his goal was to root out fraud in Medicaid so that “every dollar that’s allocated” would “go to someone that needs medical care, or a hungry child.”

Rebecca Cooke, his Democratic challenger, has an entirely different health care message. Last week, she stood in front of a giant blue bus emblazoned with “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now.” in a park overlooking a river marsh.

“I’ve talked to people here in the city of La Crosse, small-business owners who have seen their premiums go up from $400 to $1,800 a month,” Ms. Cooke said then, at an event hosted by “Protect Our Care,” a left-leaning nonprofit. “People are really, really hanging on by a thread here.”

The dueling messages in a crucial state encapsulate the different approaches to an issue high on voters’ minds in the final days of the campaign. As the 2026 midterm season barrels toward a close, the two parties are talking past each other on health care. Republicans see the big problem as fraud. Democrats say it is cost.

Polls show clear partisan differences in what voters think. A recent survey by KFF, a health policy research organization, found that Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to say addressing health care costs was “extremely important.”