AP/Miami Herald Examines Voters Opinions On Providing Health Care, Trade-Offs

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 12 Dec 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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The AP/Miami Herald on Tuesday examined how it is not always "easy figuring out exactly what [U.S.] voters want when it comes to health care." According to a Gallup poll released earlier this year that offered 12 different proposals to expand health insurance, each plan received support from a majority of respondents, the AP/Herald reports. However, a Gallup poll released late last month found that most respondents are satisfied with their health insurance and the amount they pay for coverage. Voters "support the principle" of expanding of health insurance to "millions of people, but only so long as they are not negatively affected by the potential trade-offs" -- such as increased costs or reduced access -- a "long-standing conflict" that has become a "dilemma for the presidential candidates," according to the AP/Herald.

In response, presidential candidates from both parties have decided to focus on the broad outlines of their health care proposals and are "content to leave many of the details for later," the AP/Herald reports (Freking, AP/Miami Herald, 12/11).

Additional Coverage
Summaries of two other recent developments in the presidential campaign related to health care appear below.

• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.): Former President Bill Clinton, husband of Hillary Clinton, on Monday in Ames, Iowa, discussed her proposal to expand health insurance to all residents. Bill Clinton said that she would have more ability to revise the health care system than rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). He said, "It's one thing to have good intentions; it's another thing altogether to change the reality of people's lives" (Kornblut, "The Trail," Washington Post, 12/10).
  
  
• Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.): The Washington Post on Tuesday examined how Edwards, the first major Democratic candidate to announce a proposal to expand health insurance to all residents, hopes that "his emphasis on domestic issues, rural policies and middle-class economics -- coupled with his sharp tongue and broad electoral appeal -- will be enough to push him ahead of Clinton and Obama" (Kornblut, Washington Post, 12/11). According to the Post, Edwards supports a nationwide ban on smoking in public places to help prevent cancer, a "position that goes against one of North Carolina's most powerful industries" (Solomon/Shackelford, Washington Post, 12/11).

Editorial Examines Huckabee Record
The "overall thrust" of the political record of presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) "appears to be big-government liberalism," with support for a number of health care programs, according to a Washington Times editorial.

During his presidential campaign, Huckabee endorsed the "massive" Medicare prescription drug benefit and "was the only Republican presidential candidate who refused to support" a presidential veto of legislation that would have reauthorized and expanded SCHIP, the editorial states. In addition, as governor, Huckabee opposed the repeal of a sales tax on food and medications and signed legislation that increased the state cigarette tax, according to the editorial (Washington Times, 12/11).

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.

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