Health Care Is on Every Ballot, Even If It Doesn’t Appear by Name (Oct. 26, 2026 – USA TODAY opinion, by Dr. Joseph V. Sakran)
In the trauma bay, nobody asks a patient how they vote. But Dr. Joseph Sakran, a trauma surgeon and executive vice chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine, says that by the time someone reaches his operating table, much of their story has already been written: whether they had insurance, whether they could afford their medications, how fast the ambulance could get there. Those decisions, he reminds us, were made in statehouses, county offices and federal agencies by people we elected.
His examples are sobering. He points to Medicaid and CHIP coverage for more than 73 million Americans, to a Congressional Budget Office estimate that 2025 changes will cut Medicaid enrollment by 13.1 million people by 2035, to a measles outbreak that has already sickened about twice as many people this year as in all of 2025, and to National Institutes of Health funding that runs only through Dec. 11 under a stopgap budget.
We think he has it right, and it matters here at home. On Nov. 3, voters in Caln, West Brandywine, Downingtown and East Caln will help choose the governor, who shapes how Medicaid works in Pennsylvania, and our member of Congress, who votes on the funding behind public health and research. Health care will not appear by name on the ballot, but it is on every line of it.
What we like best about Dr. Sakran’s piece is that he does not tell anyone how to vote. He asks voters to question candidates the way a clinician would. What’s the evidence? What’s the plan for the patient in front of us? Who is accountable if a policy fails? Those are fair questions for any candidate in any party, and we welcome them.
Before you vote, take two minutes to see what is on your ballot. Look up your precinct’s sample ballot and make a plan to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 3 (polls are open 7 AM to 8 PM).
Read more: Dr. Sakran’s post and link to the full essay on LinkedIn