| Medical News Today, article date: 26 Oct 2007 - 9:00 PDT
U.S. adults favor health care proposals from Democratic presidential candidates more than plans from Republican candidates, according to a recent Los Angeles Times /Bloomberg survey. The survey, conducted between Friday and Monday and supervised by Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus, included responses from 1,209 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
According to the survey, 62% favor a requirement that large employers offer health insurance to employees -- a provision included in health care proposals from Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- and 31% oppose such a requirement. Fifty-one percent favor a requirement that individuals obtain health insurance -- a provision included in the Clinton and Edwards proposals -- and 39% oppose such a requirement, the survey found.
Forty-four percent favor tax credits to help individuals purchase private health insurance -- a provision included in health care proposals from former New York City Major Rudy Giuliani (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) -- and 45% oppose such tax credits, according to the survey.
In addition, the survey found that 53% favor an expansion of Medicare to all U.S. residents and that 36% oppose such an expansion. The survey also found that 23% cite employers as responsible for the provision of health insurance, compared with 24% who cite individuals and 19% who cite both. Twenty-nine percent said the government is responsible for securing health insurance. "In one of the most politically significant results, the poll finds that independents and moderates were generally lining up with Democrats in the health care debate," the Times reports (Alonso-Zaldivar/Hook, Los Angeles Times , 10/25).
The survey is available online (http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2007-10/33450977.pdf)
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Medical News Today,
26 Oct 2007 |