Aug 18 2012
Two polls, one conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and another conducted by KFF and the Washington Post, find that a majority of Republicans and Democrats oppose plans to cut Medicare benefits or transform the program into a "definied-contribution" model.
Reuters: U.S. Voters See Medicare As a Top Election Issue: Poll
Medicare has become a top healthcare issue in the U.S. presidential election, surpassing the controversy over President Barack Obama's healthcare law, according to a poll conducted just as Republican Mitt Romney pushed the issue to the forefront of the campaign with his choice of running mate. On Saturday, Romney announced he had picked Representative Paul Ryan, a lawmaker whose plan to cut billions of dollars from the U.S. deficit included transforming the costly, but popular, healthcare program for the elderly (Morgan, 8/16).
Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Don't Change Medicare, Most Republicans Say In Poll
As Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare makes campaign headlines, a majority of Republicans oppose changing the government program for seniors, according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) That could spell trouble for presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his designated running mate Ryan as voters focus on the Wisconsin congressman's 'premium support' plan (Hancock, 8/16).
CQ HealthBeat: Opposition To Cutting Medicare Benefits, Premium Support Cuts Across Party Lines
In a rare moment of near-agreement on health care policy this election season, a majority of Republicans and Democrats oppose cutting Medicare benefits or transforming the program into a defined-contribution model, according to one of two polls the Kaiser Family Foundation released Thursday. According to a joint Washington Post/Kaiser survey, which was conducted mostly before presumed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., as his vice presidential pick, found that 55 percent of Republicans want to maintain Medicare as it is currently structured and not change it to a system under which seniors get a fixed amount of money with which to buy health insurance (Bunis, 8/16).
Modern Healthcare: Costs, Medicare Top Healthcare Issues For Voters, Poll
The cost of both healthcare and health insurance, followed by Medicare, are the top healthcare concerns on the minds of voters in all political parties, according to an August tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. When asked about the top healthcare policy issues in this campaign season, 78% of Democrats, 73% of Independents and 67% of Republicans listed the cost of healthcare and health insurance as either extremely or very important to their vote for president (Zigmond, 8/16).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.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.
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