Health care trails major issues - majority of Americans have coverage

New York News Day ^ | September 23, 2004 | DELTHIA RICKS

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...Voters who are most concerned about health issues, researchers found, were older people who identified themselves as Democrats. Their prime concerns involved Medicare benefits and high prescription drug prices.

...Topics that ranked lowest regardless of party affiliation or age were racial disparities in health care, aid to developing countries to prevent and treat AIDS, medical malpractice and the quality of health care.

The researchers studied data from 22 national opinion surveys, nine of them conducted by phone during the campaign. For comparison, they analyzed 10 phone surveys conducted during the previous three presidential elections, and three surveys conducted as voters exited polls to see how voter sentiments played in previous years.

"This is the second study we've done like this," in recent months, Blendon said, "and health care hasn't changed its position. What is changing is who's up or who's down, Kerry or Bush, and we wanted to make sure we would not get caught up in that discussion."

"Over the last six months there has been no shift in where the issue stands. There's a Gallup Poll out today," Blendon said yesterday. "Health care is fourth there, too.

"We deliberately had no mention on which candidate is better on health care."

Arthur Levin, director of the Center for Medical Consumers in Manhattan, said the study has probably nailed where health care stands in the public psyche. It's not the most pressing concern for voters, Levin, a health care advocate, said.

"Part of that is because the majority of Americans, for better or worse, have some sort of health care coverage," Levin said. "Whether it is good quality is another discussion."

[KantianBurke]

"Voters who are most concerned about health issues, researchers found, were older people who identified themselves as Democrats. Their prime concerns involved Medicare benefits and high prescription drug prices."

Precisely the type of voters who would never vote for Bush regardless of how many free pill programs he handed to them. That program of Bush's was a mistake both politically and economically. It was wrong of him to demand and put into existence.