Democrats have widened their advantage over Republicans on one of the key issues heading into the 2026 midterm elections, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday.

The survey found that 48% of likely U.S. voters trust Democrats more to handle healthcare, compared with 36% who trust Republicans. Another 16% are undecided.

Democrats' 12-point lead on the issue has grown by 6 percentage points since Rasmussen's March survey.

Healthcare also remains a significant voting issue with 86% of respondents noting it as important in deciding their vote in November's congressional elections, including 51% who described it as "very important." Only 12% said the issue would not be an important factor.

Despite the issue's prominence, voters remain divided on the state of the U.S. healthcare system — with 32% rating it as excellent or good, while 36% called it fair, and 29% said it is poor.

Views of the healthcare system closely tracked partisan trust.

Among voters who trust Democrats more on healthcare, just 23% rated the system as excellent or good. By contrast, half of those who trust Republicans on the issue gave the system positive marks.

Partisan loyalty remained strong with 86% of Democrats trusting their own party more on healthcare and 76% of Republicans saying the same.

Among independent voters, Democrats held a sizable edge, with 47% trusting Democrats compared with 22% who preferred Republicans, while 34% were undecided.

The survey also found demographic differences.

Women were more likely than men to trust Democrats on healthcare, 53% to 45%, respectively, while men were somewhat more likely to trust Republicans.

Voters ages 65 and older were the most likely to trust Republicans, while those in their 30s and 40s were most likely to rate the healthcare system poorly.

Lower-income voters earning less than $30,000 annually were the most likely to say healthcare would be a "very important" issue in their midterm vote, while voters with household incomes above $200,000 were the most likely to trust Democrats to handle the issue.

The poll's findings come as healthcare continues to rank among the most closely watched issues ahead of the November elections.

Rasmussen posed respondents with three core questions: how they rate the U.S. healthcare system, how important healthcare will be in their congressional vote, and which political party they trust more to handle healthcare.

The Rasmussen Reports survey was conducted July 15-16 and 19, 2026, among 1,082 likely U.S. voters by telephone and online. The margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Field work was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.