Democratic Presidential Candidate Obama Talks With New Hampshire Voters About Problems With Health Care Costs, Other Issues

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 24 Dec 2007 - 7:00 PST

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Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Wednesday at The Common Man restaurant in Concord, N.H., assembled six New Hampshire voters who told their stories about problems with health care costs and other issues, The Politico reports (Budoff Brown, The Politico, 12/20).

At the event, Sandra Burt, who last summer turned 65 and lost her manufacturing job, told Obama that she and her husband cannot afford their monthly prescription drug costs of $2,900 or heat for their home. Obama called her situation "outrageous" and criticized health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and other special interests for the problems with the health care system (Helman, Boston Globe, 12/20).

He said, "Nobody expects government to do everything for them. What people do expect is if you are working hard and doing the right thing, then you should be able to retire with dignity and respect and have some basic health care." In addition, he said, "I know I can fix it if I've got the American people understanding that it needs to be fixed."

According to The Politico, Burt "has become a bit of a mini-celebrity since August, when she lost her job, showed up at a rally" for presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), and "detailed her plight for the crowd." Burt later appeared in a radio advertisement for AARP and works with New Hampshire for Health Care, an advocacy project sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (The Politico, 12/20).

Poll Gauges Top Issues, Health Priorities in Campaign
The December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds that Iraq continues to top the list of issues the public wants to hear presidential candidates discuss. According to the poll, 35% of U.S. residents named the Iraq war as one of the top two issues in an open-ended question. Thirty percent said health care was one of the top two issues, followed by the economy (21%) and immigration (17%). Health care continues to rank second behind Iraq for Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. However, while health ranks clearly ahead of the economy and immigration for Democrats, it is more tightly packed with these issues for Republicans.

In addition, the poll found that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) continues to be the candidate most associated with the health care issue, with 39% saying she is the candidate who is "placing the biggest emphasis on health care issues." No other candidate, Democrat or Republican, is mentioned by more than 5% of the public on this question. On the separate question of which candidate best represents their own health care views, Clinton was named by 22% of the public overall and by nearly four in 10 Democrats. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the top pick among Republican candidates, with 5% of the public and 9% of Republicans saying he best represents their health care views.

This latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. A nationally representative random sample of 1,221 adults was interviewed by telephone between Nov. 28 and Dec. 9. The margin of sampling error for the survey is plus or minus three percentage points; for results based on subgroups, the sampling error is higher.

Full poll results are available online.

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.