Health care remains the top domestic issue that the public wants presidential candidates to address, trailing only Iraq on the public's overall priority list, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008.

The June poll finds that 43% of adults cite Iraq as one of the most important issues for presidential candidates to talk about, followed by health care (21%). Iraq ranks first among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.

Health care ranks second among Democrats and independents, while Republicans rank immigration slightly ahead of health (20% vs. 18%). Immigration rose sharply as an issue since March and ranks third overall with 18% in the new poll, which was taken as media attention focused on the Senate debate about immigration reform legislation. The economy (13%) and gas prices (12%) follow.

"Health is not yet back at the level it was in the early '90s as a national issue, but it is rising," said Foundation President and CEO Drew E. Altman, Ph.D. "The decisive factor that will determine whether we again have a big national debate will be the degree to which the presidential candidates really take on the issue in the campaign."

The poll also measures the public's perceptions of the presidential candidates on health issues. To date, most people don't know or can't name the candidate who they feel is placing the biggest emphasis on health or the candidate who most matches their own views. Across party identification, Sen. Hillary Clinton remains the candidate that people are most likely to name as placing the biggest emphasis on health care (23%) and as agreeing with their views (17%). Sen. Barack Obama is in second place (9% on each question).

Looking only at Democrats, one in three name Sen. Clinton (33%, compared to 27% in March) as the candidate who comes closest to their personal views on health care, compared to 15% who name Sen. Obama (up from 8% in March) and 4% who name former Sen. John Edwards (no change since March). Since the earlier poll, Sen. Obama announced his health proposal and Sen. Clinton announced her plan on health care costs. Sen. Edwards previously announced his health reform plan.

Few people name any of the Republican candidates as placing the biggest emphasis on health care, with 2% overall naming former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mayor Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney each are named by 3% of people as the candidate who most agrees with their health care views. Looking only at Republicans, nearly one in 10 (9%) name Mayor Giuliani as the candidate who most agrees with their health care views, followed by Gov. Romney (6%) and Sen. John McCain (5%).

When asked what concerns them about rising health care costs, the poll found people are twice as likely to cite having to pay higher premiums and increased out-of-pocket costs (38%) as they are to say increases in spending on government health insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid (18%) or increases in what the nation as a whole spends on health (18%). A smaller share (13%) cite increases in the health insurance premiums that employers pay to cover their workers. These views vary little based on party identification.

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 is part of a broader effort by the Kaiser Family Foundation to provide a central hub for resources and information about health policy issues in the 2008 election. In the next few weeks, Kaiser will be launching a new website that will include analysis of policy issues, regular public opinion surveys, daily news updates, video of speeches and debates from the campaign trail, original interviews, and resources for journalists covering the election. Look for the new site at www.health08.org.

The June poll was designed and analyzed by Foundation researchers and involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,203 adults, who were interviewed by telephone between May 31 and June 5. The margin of sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 3 percentage points; for results based on subgroups, the sampling error is higher. Full results are available here.

Contacts
Craig Palosky
(202) 347-5270
cpalosky@kff.org

Larry Levitt
(650) 854-9400
llevitt@kff.org