Election 2008 | More Than Three-Fourths of Voters Believe Next President Can Have Influence on Health Care Costs, Poll Finds
[Jan 31, 2008]

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

The online poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks, included responses from 2,016 voters -- 943 of whom were Democrats or leaned toward Democrats and 740 of whom were Republicans or leaned toward Republicans -- collected between Jan. 18 and Jan. 28. The poll had a margin of sampling error of 3.2% for Democrats and of 3.6% for Republicans (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 1/31).

Complete results of the poll are available online.

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

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