Voters Believe Next President Can Have Influence On Health Care Costs

Health CareCosts

More thanthree-fourths of U.S. voters believe the next president can have at least someinfluence on health care costs, according to an Associated Press/Yahoo! Newspoll released on Thursday, the AP/SanFrancisco Chronicle reports (Benac/Tompson, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 1/31).

The online poll, conducted by KnowledgeNetworks, includedresponses from 2,016 voters -- 943 of whom were Democrats or leaned towardDemocrats and 740 of whom were Republicans or leaned toward Republicans --collected between Jan. 18 and Jan. 28. The poll had a margin of sampling errorof 3.2% for Democrats and of 3.6% for Republicans (AP/San FranciscoChronicle, 1/31).

Effect of Proposals on 'Typical' CaliforniaDemocrat

The Chicago Tribune on Thursday profiled a California woman"who is a prototype of what polls suggest is a 'typical' CaliforniaDemocrat" and examined the effect that health care and other proposalsfrom the presidential candidates would have on her. According to the Tribune,an analysis of the health care proposals of the candidates "shows littleimmediate help" for the average California Democrat.

The three major Republican candidates maintain that their proposals would makehealth care more affordable. According to the Tribune, Sens. HillaryRodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have said their proposalswould save the average family as much as $2,500 annually in premiums. However,"those are estimates, based on projected savings from technology, diseaseprevention and insurance efficiencies," and in the event that "allthe proposals come true, the campaigns admit that families could wait years tosee the full savings," the Tribune reports (Tankersley, ChicagoTribune, 1/31).

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