Polls: Health care 'very important' in midterms; Voters look at Medicare cuts to reduce deficit

A new CNN poll found that health care remains a big issue for voters ahead of November's midterm elections with more than 80 percent of respondents saying it was very or extremely important to them, The Hill reports. The issue, however, lags jobs and the economy in importance among respondents. "Only five other issues — the economy, unemployment, the deficit, terrorism and government ethics — were deemed more important. … The latest round of telephone polling was conducted Aug. 6-10 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,009 adult Americans. In regards to healthcare, 13 percent of respondents said the issue was 'moderately important' and 4 percent judged it 'not that important'" (Pecquet, 8/16).

CNN has the full poll results. The margin of error was +/- 3 percentage points (8/16)

In the meantime, The Wall Street Journal reports on a new poll and focus group that found "[f]rustrated voters, fixing on the $1.5 trillion federal deficit as a symbol of Washington's paralysis, appear increasingly willing to take drastic steps to address the red ink. ... That is a source of political peril for both Democratic and Republican parties, which are trying to talk about the deficit without addressing the specifics of how they would tackle it. Leaders on both sides of the aisle worry about being attacked if they produce a package of painful spending cuts or tax increases. And to reinforce lawmakers' anxiety, voters remain divided about what ought to be done." Some say they would accept higher copayments and deductibles for Medicare medical care.  "With the baby boom generation retiring, the deficit will begin rising again because of rising Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending" (Weisman, 8/16).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.