Many U.S. Adults Rank Health Care As Important Issue In 2008 Presidential Election, Poll Finds

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 06 Nov 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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More than one-fourth of U.S. adults rank health care as one of the two most important issues in the 2008 presidential election, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Sunday. The poll -- conducted by telephone between Oct. 29 and Nov. 1 -- included responses from a random sample of 1,131 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

According to the Post, "three issues dominate the electoral landscape, with the war in Iraq at the top of the list," followed by the economy and health care. The poll found that 27% of adults ranked health care as one of the two most important issues in the election. Thirty-four percent of Democrats ranked health care as one of the two most important issues in the election, compared with 16% of Republicans, the poll found.

In addition, among blacks, 38% ranked health care as one of the two most important issues in the election, and 20% ranked the issue as the most important, according to the poll. The poll also found that Democrats hold a double-digit lead over Republicans as the party most trusted to address the health care issue (Balz/Cohen, Washington Post, 11/4).

Quinnipiac University Poll
A second poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found that the majority of U.S. voters believe the federal government should ensure access to adequate health care for all residents and provide health insurance to those who cannot afford coverage. The poll, conducted from Oct. 23 to Oct. 29, included responses from 1,636 voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

According to the poll, 53% of voters ranked access to health insurance as their highest priority among health care concerns, compared with 41% who ranked reduction of costs as their highest priority. Seventy-one percent of Democrats ranked access to health insurance as their highest priority, and 80% of Republicans ranked reduction of costs as their highest priority, the poll found.

In addition, the poll found that 70% of voters -- 87% of Democrats, 56% of Republicans and 67% of independents -- believe the federal government should help cover the cost of catastrophic care for residents (O'Leary, New Haven Register, 11/2).

Clinton Rejects Charges About Secret Documents
Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Sunday rejected allegations that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have secret documents on her involvement in health care reform efforts during the 1990s, the AP/Detroit News reports.

She said, "There's been some misunderstanding and some misrepresentation about what the facts are." Clinton added, "The National Archive controls and administers presidential records; that's what they do for every president," adding, "My husband has not withheld a single document" (Glover, AP/Detroit News, 11/5).

Giuliani Defends Cancer Ad
Presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) on Friday said that he purposely used information from 2000, rather than today, on the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer in Britain in a recently launched campaign advertisement, Long Island Newsday reports (Gordon, Long Island Newsday, 11/4).

In the radio ad, which began to air last week in New Hampshire, Giuliani promotes his health care proposal and discusses his experience with prostate cancer. Giuliani says, "I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United States: 82%," adding, "My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44% under socialized medicine." The Commonwealth Fund last week in a statement questioned the accuracy of the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer in Britain cited in the ad (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/31).

However, Giuliani said, "Those figures are absolutely accurate as of the time that I had (cancer), and they remain accurate today," adding, "I made my decision about what to do about prostate cancer in 2000. The report is from the year 2000." He also said that "those statistics have changed slightly today," with a five-year survival rate for prostate cancer of 99% in the U.S. and 74% in Britain (Long Island Newsday, 11/4).

Editorials

• Hartford Courant: Giuliani "tripped" when he "attacked his Democratic rivals for advocating European-style 'socialist' health plans" and when he said the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer in Britain is 44% in the ad, according to a Courant editorial. No Democratic presidential candidate "advocates a European-style or a Canadian health care system," and most propose "maintaining a central role for the private sector -- within the framework of making health care more accessible," the editorial states. In addition, in the ad, "the numbers used by the candidate are 'crude' and seven years old," the editorial states, adding, "Besides, is it really fair to compare such statistics when circumstances beyond insurance coverage play a hand?" (Hartford Courant, 11/5).
  
  
• St. Petersburg Times: The Giuliani "commercial rant about the comparative cancer survival rates with European 'socialized medicine' would be tacky even if his facts were right," a Times editorial states. Such "distortions about European medicine may make for interesting campaign rhetoric, but they offer nothing to the 47 million Americans who have no insurance," the editorial states (St. Petersburg Times, 11/3).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.