Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Health care tops voters' concerns
"If I can't stop the bleeding, I'm afraid I won't be able to save her," one of my mother's four doctors said three weeks ago as he asked for permission to operate on her frail, 76-year-old, 83-pound body.
Mind you, I went through the intensive care unit danger zone with my now-deceased father at this same time last year.
Leaving the Northern Virginia hospital late one evening during her teetering recovery from a four-hour surgery, I ran into a high school classmate whose mother also was being treated in the intensive care unit. As we strolled to the parking lot, we crossed paths with yet another high school classmate whose older sister had been hospitalized for nearly a week.
You realize that you have reached a crossroads in your life when you find yourself in the midst of an impromptu high school class reunion in a hospital parking lot.
Last weekend, I attended a more formal class reunion for the Class of '68 of T.C. Williams High School. You know, home of "Remember the Titans."
Much of the catch-up chatter revolved around our baby-boomer ailments, or those of our aging parents. One classmate, still a beauty queen, joked that if we wait another 10 years for our next class reunion, "we'll have to have a Botox party first."
"Or half of us will be using walkers and carrying oxygen tanks while the other half won't make it," I added.
Health care, or the lack of it, was an even bigger topic than the reminiscent whispers about Mike and Patsy dancing some 40 years later.
So I shouldn't have been surprised Monday to receive a news release from the pollsters at the Marist Poll saying that "health care trumps tax cuts by a wide margin" in their latest findings in the presidential race.
"When faced with a choice, voters nationally would prefer the next president address health care rather than tax cuts. Seventy percent view health care as their priority, compared with 27 percent who say cutting taxes would be their choice," the news release said.
"Although there may be differences along party lines, a majority of Democrats and Republicans agree," the poll shows. That's 81 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of independents.
Making health care affordable was the top priority among those surveyed. Voters want to know what the next president plans to do about rising health costs and the inaccessibility of quality health care.
Surely, health care will come up during the second presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., as voters in the audience and on the Internet get a chance to question the presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.
Pay attention: Their plans to provide insurance to more Americans are decidedly different.
Some fact-checking organizations contend that Mr. Obama's plan, which does not meet the universal care standard either, covers more people.
Mr. McCain's proposal includes a tax credit to defray the cost of private insurance purchased by individuals but removes the tax credit for businesses that provide coverage for their employees.
Neither of these plans comes cheap, though they certainly cost less than the $700 billion-plus government bailout for Wall Street.
Lee M. Miringoff, spokesman for the Marist Poll, which has been based at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., since 1978, said health care "is the current buzz in the campaign" and the candidates "will probably ratchet it up during the debate."
Mr. Miringoff added that they prefer to conduct polls on newsworthy topics in addition to the standard polls predicting election outcomes.
"There is enough 'horse race' journalism going around, including from us," he said.
All pollsters remind us that polls are but a snapshot of voter sentiment and can change at any time. Of course, there are partisan differences.
The poll noted: "51 percent of registered voters nationally believe Senator Barack Obama is the better candidate to tackle the issue of health care. He outpaces his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, by 13 percentage points. McCain has the confidence of 38 percent of the U.S. electorate who think he is the one to reform health care."
The Marist Poll findings released Monday (at www.MaristPoll.Marist.edu) were the results of telephone interviews with 801 adults 18 years of age or older, 693 of whom are registered voters, and conducted Sept. 24-25.
The survey indicates that "when it comes to health care, forget about the debt."
"In the midst of the nation's economic turmoil, most voters nationwide - 78 percent - say it's better for the next president to deal with the health care crisis even if it means greater government debt. Just 17 percent believe the next president should not address health care in light of the nation's economic crisis," the pollsters said.
The Marist Poll shows that even though the majority of households have insurance, people are cutting back on their coverage.
I've heard people talk about stretching their costly prescriptions by not taking them everyday. Countless people do not go to the doctor until their condition gets so bad they must rush to an emergency room, which ends up costing more. Maybe not for the patients, if they happen to be indigent, but somebody's got to foot that bill. Guess who?
After a work-related accident, I accompanied my daughter to the same emergency room where I'd spent a night with my mother. The lobby was so jam-packed with people lined out the door that you'd have thought they were distributing free iPhones instead of pills and bandages.
The Marist Poll also found that although 79 percent of households nationwide say everyone in their home is insured, 21 percent say at least one person in their household is not covered by a health plan. And that's just the beginning. Ten percent of households did not have continuous coverage during the past year. Furthermore, 6 percent report they scaled back their coverage this year to cut costs.
"When all of these factors are taken into account, 37 percent of U.S. households are feeling the effects of the health care crisis," the pollsters stated.
I'll say. Today my mother is resting on a "BMW bed" to prevent further skin ulcers that cost $100,000, I'm told by an elder care administrator.
Fortunately for us, she qualifies for Medicare. Otherwise, her bleeding to death may have been the least of our worries.