STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY - HEALTH PULSE OF AMERICA - JULY 2004

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND HEALTH CARE

President Bush continued to get weak ratings for his handling of health care policy (practically the same as in March), with 28% approval and 48% disapproval. And there is still pervasive approval for action and spending on health care. Just under 50% of Americans wanted less spending on national defense and more on health care (again about the same as in March) and just over 50% wanted to repeal some or all of the tax cuts to expand health coverage (down slightly from 57% in March).

Overall, Kerry has made little headway with Americans on the health care issue over the last 3 months. This is not terribly surprising given the dominant role of the war, but it suggests he has a lot more to do on this issue. [As in other polls, we found that the number of people saying the war and terrorism was the most important electoral issue jumped from 19% to 29%.] The percentage who viewed health care as the most important issue was virtually unchanged from March (at 14%), a distant third to the economy and war/terrorism.

Kerry’s position on the drug importation issue remains his most popular stance on health care. Roughly 70% continued to support the importation of prescription drugs from Canada (little different from March), over 50% (58%) viewed prescription drugs from Canada as safe (down slightly from 66% in March) while 14% viewed them as unsafe. And there was a slight increase in the number of people who want to place limits on what pharmaceutical companies can charge for drugs (from 70% in March to 78% in the current poll). More Americans thought Bush’s health care policies would benefit pharmaceutical companies (50%) more than ordinary people (20%) and the reverse held true for Kerry (15% thought his policies would benefit companies compared to 38% benefiting ordinary people). But that still left over 40% who could not rate the consequences of Kerry’s policies in this respect.

Kerry failed, however, to make progress in convincing voters to support his other health proposals. Only 36% supported Kerry’s position of allowing people to buy into the federal employees health insurance program (down slightly from 41% in March) compared to 45% who supported government provided tax credits to pay for private insurance (Bush’s policy). Just over a third (34%) supported his position of government payment of catastrophic health care bills compared to 47% who supported Bush’s position of providing tax-free health savings accounts to pay for private catastrophic insurance. Overall, there was a slight narrowing of the gap in who Americans felt they could trust to better handle health care – with 35% nominating Bush and 36% choosing Kerry.

What do you think is the MOST important HEALTH problem facing Americans today?

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling HEALTH CARE policy?

Thinking ahead to this year's presidential election in November, how important will the candidates' position on health care be in deciding who you vote for? 

Which of these will be the single MOST important issue in your vote for president later this year: 

When making up the budget, policy makers often confront tough choices. If you had to choose, would you rather have MORE money spent on health care and LESS on national defense, LESS on health care and MORE on national defense, or keep spending at current levels? 

Do you think the government should KEEP the recent tax cut in order to stimulate the economy, REPEAL tax cuts for the MOST WEALTHY to expand health insurance coverage, or should the government repeal ALMOST ALL of the tax cut to expand health insurance coverage? 

Which of the following two options do you prefer MOST:

ONE The federal government allows people without health insurance to buy into its health insurance plan for Federal Employees at affordable rates, OR

 TWO The federal government provides a tax credit to people without health insurance to pay for