Select2008 Blog - Comparing and tracking the 2008 presidential candidates

This post is the third and last part of our analysis of voters’ support for Clinton and Obama healthcare plans. It reviews voters’ support for mandatory healthcare, a key difference between Clinton’s and Obama’s health care plans.

Obama’s plan will not provide healthcare to approximately 15 million US residents, by all estimates. However, voters seem to see the glass half full rather than half empty here and a 2/3 majority supports the Obama plan in that regard.

Small business employees are much less likely to receive health insurance through their employers. Voters support requiring small businesses to provide health insurance with a 2 to 1 majority.

Mandatory health care seems to receive broad support across voters. A strong majority both recognizes it as a key to achieving universal healthcare and an action item for the next President.

The analysis above reviews over 60,000 expressed opinion on healthcare on over 200 questions that cover the whole gamut of health care proposals for the 2008 primaries and presidential elections. The most important and selective questions on Select2008 on universal health care are the following ones:

- Propose a universal healthcare plan that covers at least 32 million out of the 47 million uninsured U.S. residents – 64% agree and 28% disagree out of 2,000+ votes/ 500+ votes this week

- Require small businesses to provide healthcare insurance to their employees – 60% agree and 31% disagree out of 8,000+ votes/ 1,200+ votes this week

- Mandatory health insurance is the key to achieving universal healthcare – 55% agree and 35% disagree out of 7,500 votes/ 1,400+ votes this week

- Make healthcare insurance mandatory for all U.S. residents – 62% agree and 31% disagree out of 8,800+ votes/ 1,500+ votes this week

Popularity: 100% [?]

This post is the second part of our analysis of voters’ support for Clinton and Obama healthcare plans. It reviews the tricky issue of funding universal health care.

Funding a universal healthcare plan raises a host of very interesting issues. Voters would overwhelmingly rather have the plan being self sustained through cost reallocation and savings. However, most experts agree that universal healthcare cannot be achieved without additional funding. Voters seem to have caught on to it and a majority of voters support funding in ranges in line with those of Clinton’s and Obama’s universal healthcare plans.

On the other hand, raising taxes to achieve universal healthcare is more contentious. Voters support repealing the Bush tax breaks to fund universal healthcare. However, a strong majority seems to oppose raising taxes across the board for universal healthcare. These conflicting views in the electorate hold the promise for a lively debate on universal health care, as we move closer to the November 4 election.

The analysis above reviews over 60,000 expressed opinion on healthcare on over 200 questions that cover the whole gamut of health care proposals for the 2008 primaries and presidential elections. The most important and selective questions on Select2008 on universal health care are the following ones:

- Raise taxes to achieve universal healthcare – 40% agree and 54% disagree out of 4,000+ votes/ 650+ votes this week

- Repeal Bush’s tax breaks to fund universal healthcare – 52% agree and 34% disagree out of 1,700+ votes / 300+ votes this week

- Propose a universal healthcare plan costing $90 billion to $120 billion per year – 56% agree and 25% disagree out of 4,300 votes/ 800+ votes this week

- Propose a universal healthcare plan costing $50 billion to $70 billion per year – 43% agree and 35% disagree out of 1,300 votes/ 250+votes this week

- Propose a universal healthcare plan financed without raising taxes by saving costs and reallocating funds – 61% agree and 27% disagree out of 1,600+ votes/ 250+ votes this week

Popularity: 98% [?]

This post is the first part of our analysis of voters’ support for Clinton and Obama healthcare plans. It reviews voters’ support for universal health care.

Only a slight majority of voters supports universal health care, which hints at a spirited debate as we move into the general election phase. Obama’s plan seems to provide a solid baseline to move towards universal health care, since a 2/3 majority supports a “partially” universal health care plan, which would still leave 15 million people uninsured.

To the contrary, support for universal health coverage for catastrophic health problems only seems much narrower than a broader universal health care plan. Interestingly, the electorate seems to expect the Federal government to be a key catalyst of universal healthcare, as voters dismiss the idea of curbing Federal government’s role in healthcare.

The analysis above reviews over 60,000 expressed opinion on healthcare on over 200 questions that cover the whole gamut of health care proposals for the 2008 primaries and presidential elections. The most important and selective questions on Select2008 on universal health care are the following ones:

- Achieve universal healthcare as quickly as possible - 49% agree and 42% disagree out of 1950+ votes in 2008 / 280+ votes this week;

- Propose a universal healthcare plan that covers at least 32 million out of the 47 million uninsured U.S. residents – 64% agree and 28% disagree out of 2,000+ votes in 2008 / 500+ votes this week;

- Provide universal coverage for catastrophic healthcare issues only – 44% agree and 40% disagree out of 1,400+ votes in 2008 / 250+ votes this week;

- Limit the Federal government’s role in healthcare and curb large entitlement programs – 40% agree and 48% disagree out of 3600+ votes in 2008/ 800+ votes this week.

Popularity: 97% [?]

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have debated their health care plans in great details when they met on stage in Cleveland, OH last Tuesday. Their health care plans showcase significant differences between them and are also very telling about their likely government and leadership styles.

Select2008’s exclusive online polling has gathered over 500,000 expressed opinions over the month of February over the whole spectrum of election issues. We have taken a closer look at health care issues to gauge voters’ support for some of Clinton’s and Obama’s key proposal.

The Select2008 Blog took a closer look at the following issues and reviews them in details in the subsequent blog posts:

- Universal Healthcare - Select2008.com’s Exclusive Look at Voters’ Support for Universal Health Care in Clinton’s and Obama’s Plans

- Financing Universal Health Care - Select2008.com’s Exclusive Look at Voters Support for Financing Clinton’s and Obama’s Universal Health Care Plans

- Mandatory Health Care - Select2008.com’s Exclusive Look at Voters’ Support for Mandatory Health Care

The analysis is based on over 43,300 votes and 7,800 votes this week, i.e. substantially enough votes to make this analysis substantive. As noted before, readers can also further track election issues and particular questions on the Select2008 website. The newly redesigned face off vote page also displays live polling data, as users go through and answer the questions.

Popularity: 81% [?]