Poll: More than half of likely voters say candidate's stance on child health issues affect their vote

Among adults with or without children who stated they were likely to vote on Nov. 4, 55% said a candidate's stance on child health issues would affect their vote, results from a C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health show.

Sixty-six percent of respondents with children said that a candidate's position on child health issues would affect their vote, compared with 51% of respondents without children. Among Democrat respondents, 61% said child health issues would affect their vote, while 45% of Republican respondents felt the same way.

The poll also asked likely voters to select from a list of five health problems the three that were most important for the next President and Congress to deal with. Eighty percent of likely voters picked "Health insurance is too expensive for many families to afford", 57% picked "Many people cannot afford prescription drugs", and 56% picked "Millions of children are uninsured."

Fifty-two percent and 29% picked the remaining two options, "Millions of adults are uninsured" and "Some people get lower quality of health care than others", respectively.

In deciding which of the two leading presidential candidates would be more effective at handling the aforementioned health care problems, most picked Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain. The percentage breakdowns are as follows:

• Health insurance is too expensive for many families to afford
  Obama: 62%
  McCain: 38%

• Many people cannot afford prescription drugs
  Obama: 57%
  McCain: 43%

• Millions of children are uninsured
  Obama: 65%
  McCain: 35%

• Millions of adults are uninsured
  Obama: 65%
  McCain: 35%

• Some people get lower quality of health care than others
  Obama: 62%
  McCain: 38%

In addition, 93% of those polled who were Democrats, and 69% of those polled who were Independents, believed that Sen. Obama would be more effective at dealing with the problem of uninsured children, while 79% of Republicans felt that Sen. McCain would be more effective. Eighty-four percent of uninsured voters felt that Sen. Obama would be more effective at handling the issue of uninsured children, as did 59% of voters on public insurance.

The full report can be accessed on the University of Michigan's Web site.