Health Care Nears Top of Voter Concerns in New Poll
When it comes to health care policies, Americans want changes. But don't make them sweeping, expensive, or paramount.
Those were some of the indications of a new national survey on health care and the 2000 election conducted by the Harvard Opinion Research Program and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The Department of Health Policy and Management and the John F. Kennedy School of Government developed the Harvard Opinion Research Program, which measures public and leadership opinion in the US and abroad. The results of the survey were announced in a press release on January 19.
The poll surveyed more than 1,200 registered voters in a national random sampling last December. Results revealed that Americans will consider health care the second most important issue behind education when casting ballots next November. But determining exactly what voters want is another matter. Respondents said they desired incremental improvements in the country's health care system, but remained divided over which concerns should take precedence.
Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Department
of Health Policy and Management, says health care will play a role in
the 2000 presidential election.
The study identified two groups of voters concerned about health care. One focused on health care costs, coverage for the uninsured, and patients' rights. The other, made up of disproportionately older voters, cited Medicare as a top concern.
Health care has evolved over the past decade as an important campaign topic, but usually takes a back seat to the economy and foreign policy. Candidates and constituents in the 2000 election can shift attention to health care because of a strong American economy.
"This is one of the first periods of time in which we had a surplus in the budget," said Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis and executive director of the Harvard Opinion Research Poll. "A number of people have decided that health care is an issue of which they have been aware for a number of years and that some of this surplus should go to address it."
John Benson is the deputy director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program.
Blendon was surprised that coverage for the uninsured emerged as a bigger issue because it usually surfaces in times of recession when people are worried about losing their insurance. More than 40 percent of registered voters favored making a limited effort to provide insurance for those in need so long as their taxes did not increase, but nearly another 40 percent said they would pay higher taxes to kick in for the uninsured. An alarming rate of nearly one half of voters over the age of 65 said that paying for their prescription medicines is problematic. Others were concerned about making the financially troubled Medicare program solvent.
One issue that showed overwhelming agreement was patients' rights. After nearly two years of debate, voters said they would favor legislation that would protect them.
Designing a national poll that accurately tracks voting trends is challenging, but Blendon and his colleagues boast a considerable record. They have studied voters and health care issues using polls similar to the new one since 1988.
For the 2000 survey, pollsters began collecting questions in October 1999, said John Benson, deputy director of the program. "What we want to get at is, `Who are health care voters?'," said Benson. The answers are women and Democrats, but Benson warns against generalizations.
Blendon, Benson, and their colleagues will conduct a post-election poll to gauge the issues on which Americans will want Congress to focus, and they have learned that hot-button topics in campaigns do not always translate into Congressional debate.
"Though health care is an important issue, it is not the only thing
on peoples' minds," said Blendon. "Voters are just as likely
to talk about fixing schools, Social Security, Medicare and cutting taxes--all
in the same breath."
