Covering Uninsured, Controlling Costs, Top Health Care Issues for NH Voters
By Kim Forrest
WASHINGTON—In survey results released Tuesday, New Hampshire Democratic voters said covering the uninsured was their main health care concern, while Republicans said controlling health care costs was the principal issue.
The survey, unveiled at a press conference organized by the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP), a group that represents health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and other managed health care plans, comes about a year before the 2004 New Hampshire presidential primary.
The telephone survey, which asked mainly about voters’ opinions on health care, was conducted from January 26-30. Voters were surveyed in both Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses, and New Hampshire, which conducts the first primary. New Hampshire participants were selected through random digit dialing and screened for their likelihood to vote in the 2004 primary election. In all, 400 likely Democratic and 400 likely Republican voters were polled in New Hampshire.
According to the 2001 census, 38.7 million people nationwide do not have health insurance. Karen Ignagni, president of AAHP, who spoke at the press conference, said politicians should re-ignite the debate on changing health care. “The voters are growing impatient,” she said in a statement. “The health care issues that are important to them have all too often been sidelined by sound bites and 30-second commercials.” She added that health care “is sure to be one of the top issues of the presidential campaign.”
Among New Hampshire Democrats, 27 percent named covering the uninsured as the health care-related issue that would have the most impact on their choice of a presidential candidate. On the Republican side, 24 percent chose controlling costs as their principal concern.
As for a government-run health care system, New Hampshire Republicans overwhelmingly oppose such a structure, with 71 percent against it. Among New Hampshire Democrats, 51 percent favor such a plan.
Q. Whitfield Ayres, president of Ayres, McHenry & Associates Inc., the public opinion research firm that conducted the study, said these results indicate that most of the country is opposed to government-run health care. “While Democrats are split, Republicans are so overwhelmingly opposed, that if you put the two together, there’s going to be a majority of the country in opposition to a government-run health care system,” he said at the press conference.
While New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans had their differences, there was still some common ground, especially on allowing consumers to select less expensive health care plans. Ignagni said the issue of choice will “undoubtedly be a very big political discussion.”
At least half the voters in each party said it was very important for senior citizens to be able to choose a Medicare managed health plan, meaning that there would be fewer physicians to choose from, but a lower cost.
Voters in both parties also said that all consumers should be able to choose lower-cost health plans, with fewer procedures covered. In the poll, 71 percent of New Hampshire Democrats and 84 percent of New Hampshire Republicans favored that idea.
In terms of problems between patients and their health plans, New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans alike felt that an independent appeals process is a more appropriate option for resolution than suing the health plan. “The reason is that consumers want their problems solved,” Ayres said, adding that an independent appeal is “the most expeditious way to get…problems solved.”
According to Ayres and Ignagni, many voters from both parties showed cynicism when it came to politicians’ intentions on health care reform, with 57 percent of New Hampshire Democrats and 78 percent of New Hampshire Republicans saying that politicians discuss health care to gain votes, not out of an actual desire to improve the system.
Ignagni said these results indicated that voters want candidates to be clear about their campaign proposals. “Voters are telegraphing a strong sense that they want the debates to be about real problems this time,” Ignagni said.
New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans also agreed on what the criteria for a good health care reform plan should be. Majorities of both party’s voters agreed that guaranteeing access to basic health care, controlling costs and making sure that patients can gain access to physicians’ quality and safety records were important issues. Although 55 percent of Republicans said that reforming the medical malpractice system was an important criterion, only 40 percent of Democrats did so.
“The bottom line is that there’s overwhelming support for the fundamental concepts of health care reform: access, quality, controlling costs,” Ayres said.
AAHP conducted the poll as the first step of its new campaign “to help ensure that candidates’ proposals and rhetoric are in line with voters’ top health care priorities,” the group’s statement said.
Walter Rohr, president of IPG, a Keene-based employee benefits firm, said he feels that voters who do not have health insurance will put more emphasis on that issue when voting than those who have health insurance but are unhappy with the high costs.
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
