Obama, Huckabee Win Iowa Presidential Caucuses

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 07 Jan 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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The entrance poll of voters who participated in Thursday's Democratic caucus, among three issues, slightly more than one-third of respondents selected the war in Iraq and the economy as the most important concern for the U.S., with health care "close behind," the AP/Wichita Eagle reports. Among those who selected health care, 34% voted for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), and 30% voted for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the survey found. The survey was conducted for the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International at caucus sites in Iowa and included 1,600 Republicans and 2,136 Democrats (AP/Wichita Eagle, 1/4).

Obama won the Iowa Democratic presidential caucus with 38% of the vote, followed by former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) with 30% and Clinton with 29%, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Iowa Republican presidential caucus with 34% of the vote, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 25%, CNN.com reports (CNN.com, 1/4).

Iowa voters who supported Obama are "a new breed of Democratic voter: more independent politically and ready for government to act on problems such as giving affordable health care to millions who lack medical coverage," the Baltimore Sun reports (West, Baltimore Sun, 1/4).

Kucinich Discusses Health Care Proposal
In other election news, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) on Wednesday in a meeting with the editorial board of Foster's Daily Democrat cited the importance of health care and discussed his proposal to establish a single-payer system.

He said, "I see (health care) as the defining domestic issue ... it touches every American." Kucinich said that his proposal would provide "people with a doctor of their choice," adding that "insurance companies aren't going to be making the money." Currently, "insurance companies make money (by) not providing health care," he said, adding, "That's how the system's set up." He also discussed the issue of Medicare.

According to Kucinich, "Medicare, essentially, is built to be efficient," and "it has worked for many people." However, the "Bush administration's philosophy has been to move increasingly toward the privatization of Medicare," he said, adding, "They don't want Medicare to work ... the (federal government) is trying to drive up the costs, (and) they're limiting reimbursements to physicians to discourage them from participating in the system" (Claffey, Foster's Daily Democrat, 1/3).

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