Youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMtAFUSr8gE

This video of CNN shows the passing of the bill by 60 votes in the Senate. Along with commentary about the concerns of the healthcare bill and implications that the passing may mean.

Healthcare bill passes the House

Just a few days ago, the House passed President Obamas healthcare bill which includes the public option. The bill now moves to the Senate to be voted on. Still, accorrding to Ramussen Reports, people are still weary about the bill. The most recent poll conducted by Ramussen was via telephone. Of those who were polled, 45% favor the healthcare bill while 52% oppose the bill. 25% of those polled Strongly support the bill, while 42% strongly oppose the bill. Democrats seem to favor the bill more than Republicans. 90% of those who are opposed to the bill are Republicans and 58% are unaffiliated voters.

With the public still being quite divided on the issue, it will be interesting to see what happens in the Senate in regards to the bill.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

Past and current views on healthcare

U.S. citizens are still awaiting a solid decision on whether or not the new healthcare bill will be passed. However, Ramussen reports have conducted an analysis on healthcare opinions over the past few months (since september). It is interesting to view the change in peoples opinions.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/toplines/pt_survey_toplines/november_2009/toplines_health_care_november_7_8_2009

The first question asks whether or not those polled if they strongly favor or strongly oppose President Obamas healthcare plan. The numbers have been pretty uniform over the past few months, in response to this question. There has been some slight fluctuation, but no noticeable or significant changes.

The second question asks those polled if they think that healthcare bill proposed by President Obama and Congress will become a law this year. As of today, it still has not happened. Although once again there is few change amongst those polled over the months, a majority of those polled thought that it was not very likely.

The third question asked is if the healthcare reform bill passes, will the quality of healthcare increase or decrease? Once again, little fluctuation has occurred over the months. However, a majority of those polled said that they thought healthcare would get worse if the Presidents bill is passed.

The fourth and final question asks pollsters if they think that healthcare will increase in costs or decrease in costs if the healthcare bill is passed. Over 52% of those polled agreed that it would increase the overall costs of healthcare.

Healthcare costs

As the week continues, the much possibility of the Congress passing a vote on the healthcare bill this Saturday grows nearer and nearer. Today (thursday) thousands of individuals gathered at the Capital to protest the bill and requesting that the vote be delayed. This protest may have resulted out of the continuous public concern over the media coverage on the bill. Sources everywhere keep debating the unknown costs to the public, all agreeing that the number will be in the high-end billions to the low-end trillions, however the exact amount is unknown because costs can only be estimated. The most recent estimate that was posted by the nonpartison congressional office, accoriding to an article featured on foxnews.com by Judson Berger, claims that the house bill will bring $167 billion over ten years in penalities for those who do not have health insurance. The house claims that with the passing of the bill that healthcare will be affordable so the fines will be uneccessary, but affordable too who?

This is another growing concern for the public in regards to the healthcare bill and an addittional reason why the public is gathering at the capital today to ask that the vote on the bill be delayed.

Realities of Healthcare Reform

Gallup.com just came out with a feature article/poll titled, "Americans on healthcare reform; 5 key realities." Below is a discussion pertaining to these.

1. Public opinion on healthcare is divided yet stable. As recent discussions have stated, there is a split on those for healthcare and those who are against it, yet this split is not a major one. It is pretty close and has been pretty consistent, varying slightly over the past few months.

2. Americans do not have a strong sense of urgency about passing healthcare reform. Just as I talked about the past week in one of my blogs, Americans would rather have it done right then rushed. This was displayed when the media ridiculued Congress for not fully reading the healthcare bill. Americans want no suprises and they want those who are making the decision to be informed on the topic and make good choices.

3. Self-Interest is only part of the story. Despite whether or not an individual has healthcare does not necessarily mean they will vote for or against it. Gallup found that fewer than half of the individuals who had no health insurance would encourage Congress to vote for the healthcare reform bill. And some who have healthcare are not happy with the costs.

4. Specific elements of healthcare have strong appeal; few do not. People do not want to be discriminated against in regards to medical conditions by private insurers; such as obesity, smoking, past problems, etc. Yet people also do not want taxes to rise to pay for the needed changes in healthcare.

5. Obama retains the upper-hand. Obama, who is for the healthcare reform, is more popular with the public than the opponenets of the plan, who are the Republicans. And the Democratic party does have majority control in the Houses.

Updated outlooks on healthcare

With the recent healthcare drama unfolding as the prospects of a bill are claiming to soon be passed, people are still concerned with the end result. In the Gallup poll, 39% of those polled said that their support for healthcare will depend on the details that are laid out in the bill that is to be passed. 33% will oppose it and 25% will support it. In addition, the poll also states that they would prefer to see Congress deal with healthcare reform on a gradual basis over several years, versus trying to pass a comprehensive reform plan this year. Also, an addittional recent poll from Gallup states that most Americans are likely to say that their healthcare costs, coverage, insurance requirements, and quality of care will get worse rather than better if the healthcare bill is passed this year. Only to confirm this notion, Gallup conducted an addittional poll that presented the same opinion. In September of 2009, 42% of those polled said that they thought that the cost of healthcare for them and their family would get worse. Now, when polled in October, that number has risen to 49%. This shows that peoples concern has grown over the past couple of months. It is unknown whether it is due to media speculation, education, rough economic times, etc. However, this shows that healthcare is not an issue that is resting in peoples minds. As stated in the previous poll, "Americans who are undecided on healthcare legislation predict it is more likely to make their own situation worse rather than better--especially in terms of cost." Nevertheless, more closure will occur when a bill is passed or when revised methods are made public to lax public concern or to motivate the public to take a stand against the bill.

http://www.gallup.com/video/123812/Americans-Own-Care-Worsening-Healthcare-Bill.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123782/In-U.S.-39-Say-View-Healthcare-Depends-Details.aspx

Mandatory Healthcare

Of all the new ideas on how to reform healthcare, the one that has been troubling people a lot is mandatory healthcare coverage. This is the notion that if an individual does not have healthcare, then they may have to pay a fine and or a tax. Polling the nations published a poll that was conducted by ABC news asking whether or not those polled would support or oppose a law requiring the all Americans have health insurance, either getting it from work or buying it on their own. Of those polled, 51% supported this bill, 47% opposed the bill and 2% of those polled had no opinion. However, another poll that was posted on the Polling the nations database was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This poll asked whether or not those polled had employers who offered health insurance. Of those polled, 34% said yes, 60% said no and 6% did not know.

The second poll may show why the first poll was so close in numbers in regards to those who agreed and those who disagreed with making it mandatory that those without healthcare pay a fine/tax. Those who may have agreed with that argument, may work at a job that provides its employees with healthcare coverage and those that said no, might have said no not just because they did not have jobs, but possibly because they had already established themselves in their job and it still did not offer healthcare.

The notion of wanting everyone to have healthcare is logical. However, some do not want the government to pay for it. Also, some employers do not want to cover all of their employees because of costs so thats why they want those without healthcare to front the costs themselves. Yet is it right for the legislators to mandate something that forces an individual to attain healthcare coverage even if they feel as if they do not want it. And is it right for the individual to have to pay an addittional fine on top of other expenses for not having healthcare? It can arguably be said that if passed, the government will be segregating a portion of the population and treat them unfairly by making them pay an additional fine for something that the they do not want to purchase. Regardless, this is what makes the healthcare topic so controversial. All of its details are hard to equally implement.

Should you be a citizen to recieve governement healthcare?

Due to recent highlights in the current media coverage, it would seem apparent that healthcare reform will be passed soon. According to foxnews.com, President Obama said that "healthcare reform will absolutely be passed by the end of the year." However, amongst growing concerns of government run healthcare, if passed, is whether or not those who are not U.S. citizens will be covered under the new reform bill. According to Milners database, polling the nations, a question asked in the Ramussen reports about whether or not those polled thought that people should have to show proof of citizenship before recieving government subsidies from healthcare. 83% of those polled said yes, 12% said no, and 5% were not sure. However, the growing defecit is a reoccurring complaint amongst the public. Yet, checking everyone to make sure that they are a legal citizen might proove to be problematic financially. Either way, the lack of money that is present with our state and federal systems will proove to be of major concern if President Obama comes through on his promise of having healthcare reform passed by the end of 2009.

Ideas on how healthcare polling emerged

Since I have not sufficiently researched this topic, its hard to know exactly how healthcare polling emerged. However, as I get further into my Issue History paper, I will know more about the issue. Some things I can guess about is that healthcare is relatively new (late 1800s, early 1900s). The reason for this assumption is that healthcare did not become that advance until that time frame. However, since more technically advance healthcare has emerged, individuals are living longer which makes it more important that individuals have health insurance. People are able to survive things that people use to die from; diabtetes, colds, fever, etc. This is all because of advancements in medication, much of which can be bought over the counter.

One thing I hope to discuss in my Issue paper is what finally made public polling on healthcare important. Why did they start asking questions about healthcare? It would be apparent that the reason that healthcare questions in polling has evolved is beacuse of the technical advances and rising costs of individuals healthcare. However, i want to get more exact answers on these questions.

It is apparent that the recent media coverage on healthcare has drastically increased in the past year more so than at any other point in my lifetime. Obamas new healthcare plan has gathered much of the medias attention and has consumed much of the public polling. Nevertheless, I want to look to see if there has been any issue on healthcare that has caused as much turmoil as the plan that Obama wants to pass.

In my paper I want to discover these differing trends and relate it back to the overall issue on healthcare. If healthcare debate has been a reocurring theme, I also want to compare and contrast trends to see why we cannot get it right.

People not willing to give up private insurance

According to a Rasmussen report, 63% of those polled said that it is more important that nobody is forced to change their health insurance plan than making sure that people have a 'public option' available to them. Only 29% of those polled disagree. In addittion, the report goes on to say that if the public option plan passed, then 53% of those that are insured would have to change their health insurance plan if the public option plan passes. Also, the report continues on to say that 54% of those polled agree that there needs to be changes in healthcare but only 41% support the plan that is being proposed by President Obama.

This data only reconfirms what has been previously discussed in past blogs. Health care reform is needed, but the reform that the President want to put into action, is not what the public wants. This presents a major problem. The reason for this could be peoples misunderstanding of what the President is proposing, or peoples just blatant distaste for the plan. Maybe a law should just be passed that regulates the private insurance companies, but that does not include the public option. Maybe then, a common ground could be reached between the public, Congress and the President.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/october_2009/fear_of_losing_private_health_insurance_trumps_public_option

% of uninsured steadily rising

I thought it may be appropriate to touch base with some current statistics on healthcare versus different polling techniques. The Gallup organization just conducted a poll this October that reported that the number of adults that were uninsured has currently risen in the past month from 13.9% to 16.6%. This could be a direct result of the economy. Because individuals are losing their jobs, they may also be losing their health insurance. Also, if an individual does not have a job, then they may not be able to afford a private healthcare plan. This poll shows that since the number of individuals that are uninsured is rising, then some sort of healthcare reform plan needs to be implemented.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123509/At-16.6-Number-Uninsured-Americans-Ties-High.aspx

In direct correlation with the above conclusion, the Gallup Organization also conducted another recent poll that shows that individuals in Congress are currently, more so, leaning towards favoring the healthcare reform bill then ever before. The poll titled, "In U.S. Opposition Towards Healthcare Legislation Drops Modestly," the results show that over the past month, people are starting to slowly evolve from opposing the bill to favoring it. Those that wanted to vote for the bill rose from 38% to 40% from September to October and those that tended to vote for/lean for rose from 50% to 51% from September to October. In addition, those that opted to vote against the bill fell from 40% to 36% from September to October and those that tended to vote against/lean against dropped from 47% in September to 41% in October.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123470/Opposition-Healthcare-Legislation-Drops-Modestly.aspx

Both polls show that health care has not moved out of the public interest spotlight and is still an evolving issue within the realm of public opinion.

Media bias

Differnt news stations, radio stations and newspapers conduct polls daily concering political issues. However, most people have begun to realize that bias is an issue that is present within these polls because some media outlets lean more left or right than others. In a new gallup poll, only 45% of Americans say that they have trust in the media reporting the news fully. 43% of those polled said that feel that the media is to liberal versus the 15% that say that the media is to conservative. In addittion, they found that, "Democrats, nonwhites and those with high school education or less place the most trust in the media followed by liberals and women aged 18-29." This speaks a lot for media reporting. They should make an important note to have their reporting be advantageous to all and not swayed in one direction or the other. Because of bias in reporting, it would almost be an accurate assumption to say that how the media words and conducts their polls is also bias. For example, on my last blog I discussed the implication of the word "choice" in regards to Obama's healthcare policy. When one media outlet included the word "choice" and one media outlet just said public option (vs. public option choice) the results of the survey varied. How a media station conducts and words their polls can reflect somewhat on their bias and what answers they hope to extract from the results.

Will the public option be dropped?

The growing debate on healthcare is arguable centralized around the "public option." However, recent reports have said that the public option may be dropped from the reform plan if that would help the bill pass. According to the New York Times, Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary said that the public option "...is not necessary for reform." Yet, some say that dropping the public option will decrease the democratic support for the reform bill. In a recent poll done by the Huffignton Post, 77% of those polled support the public option "choice." However, as the Huffington Post reports, when NBC pollsters dropped the word "choice" and just said 'public option,' only 43% were in favor of having the government administer a public healthcare plan.

This ties in with not only the current poll that I have designed, but also with what we have recently discussed in class about poll design--word choice is crucial. The absense of the word "choice" dropped the percentage of those in favor of the public option. Word terminology is crucial in poll design.

Does interviewer 'traits' have an impact on polls?

The most clear cut answer to this question is yes. As talked about in class today, race, gender, age and socioeconomic status of an interviewer can have an impact on poll responses. In addition, body language and political affiliation (if known) can also have an impact. For example, although not a necessarily a 'trait' the way that CNN and Fox news word their results for their polls are quite different. CNN headlines a poll saying "Generational Split Over Healthcare Reform," whereas, Fox news disreagards the age difference and headlines a poll saying, "Americans Prefer the Current System to Obama's Healthcare System." Both media outlets who are polling the public are dictating the poll to slide it in a persuasive direction that would appeal or is likely to agree with a majority of its viewers.

However, in addittion, these polls could be skewed by the way that they were conducted. The Fox news poll was conducted from a population of registered voters via telephone. The CNN poll was also conducted by telephone. Therefore, is this poll representative? As discussed in class, this may be a disproportionate population representation because some individuals are not registered voters (Fox news poll) and some may not have telephones (both polls). Although one can appreciate the efficiency of polling via telephone. It may be quite easy to argue that these polls hardly represent and equal distribution of the population.

Abortion included in Healthcare?

Although President Obama has granted some leeway in the healthcare plan concerning the public option. Many Republicans and Democrats are seemingly now more concerned with whether or not public money will go to funding abortion under the new plan. According to Ramussen reports, 48% of those polled want public funded abortion banned from the bill, 13% believe that such plans should be required to cover abortion procedures and 32% are neutral.

Of those who currently support the passing of the legislation, 22% say that they want public funded abortions banned from the bill, 22% want a mandate requiring such coverage, 47% are neutral and 9% have no opinion.

This shows many of the factors that may impact those in regards to their support for heatlcare. This poll shows that even though some may currently support the plan, if abortion is or is not included in the plan than they may desert their initial support for the bill. In addittion, those who may have no opinion concerning heatlthcare may be strongly against abortion, and may now have an opinion on the healthcare issue.

The complicated nature of the healthcare plan makes it close to impossible to get a consistent opinion base of for or against national coverage because of so many prevailing circumstances and details that are present on each side that may not settle well for its supporters. Abortion is a prime example of this and a reminder that we should take each public opinion poll on legilsation with a grain of salt.

Bias in Polling

After class today I tried to find some articles that may discuss the bias in healthcare polling. Much to my surprise, I found just that. David M. Moore, who is the author of "The Opinion Makers," a recent book that just came out, wrote an article discussing Gallup's poll bias in healthcare. He accuses the Gallup organization of having a more conservative outlook on the healthcare issue and also accusses them of attempting to delay the legislation process by giving the public the more conservative outlook on the polls. Moore stresses that after working for Gallup for 13 years, the organization does attempt to not be biased in their polls, however he says that it is impossible due to personal preference. In the most recent healthcare poll, "Americans on healthcare reform: Top 10 Takeaways," he says the bias is the most prevalent.

The terminology used in this article is what bothers Moore. He states that in one example, the Gallup poll states that, ""Most Americans do not believe that the U.S. healthcare system is in a state of crisis." However, Moore specifies that other data shows that there is no "state of crisis" and Congress does not believe the healthcare system is in a 'state of crisis.' In addittion, there is no information from Gallup to conclude that the healthcare system is in crisis. Once again, the terminology that is used may promote certain reponses from those being polled although they are inaccurrate assumptions.

Another example from this Gallup poll says that,["The economy outweighs healthcare as the most pressing problem facing the country and in Americans' personal lives." To support this contention, Gallup notes that "almost 7 out of 10 Americans say economic-related issues are the nation's top problem; 16% say healthcare is the top problem."]
Moore claims that the question is, "specious." He says that it implies that only one problem should be dealth with at once, when there is no evidence to disregard the idea that the President and Congress from addressing both problems at once.

Nevertheless this article explores the problematic questioning and bias construction that may be present within a poll and upon the creation of one. David Moore points out some valid misconceptions from one of the most notable polling organizations. This validates the scrunity that everyone must have when observing poll data because no organization can obtain the perfection of being able to avoid a mistake.

http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2009/08/david-w-moore-gallups-anti-health-care-bias.html

"Nonattitudes" in healthcare polls

As discussed in class today, "Nonattitudes" in polling can present a problem when a pollster is trying to get legit polling data from a population. I do not think this problem will ever cease to exist, especially in regards to healthcare. It is a much to detailed topic topic to not have someone present within your sample that has a 'pseudo-opinion,' especially if that question is burried between other questions that they have opinions on. That one question may throw off the entire. poll. Looking back over my past blogs. I have not found one poll that does not have a "no opinion," "doesnt care," or a "somewhat" option attached to the data. I believe it is practically impossible to conduct a poll where every single person involved in that sample has an actual exact opinion on the topic that is being discussed.

After going over several gallup polls on health care that are posted at the gallup website. Almost all of them have a 'no opinion' section or some section of equal comparison to give pollers options when responding. This is what makes some polls more valid than others; the ability to cater to those in the population that may not have opinions on their poll. This makes some websites polls more valid than others who make individuals choose a side, when they may not know what side stands for what.

Healthcare divide is still close

In a recent gallup poll that was conducted, statistics still show that Americans are still divided on the healthcare issue. 35% of those polled said they would vote for it, 36% of those polled said they would vote against it and 29% had no opinion. In addittion 64% of those polled said that healthcare would be a major deciding factor in regards to their representatives position on the issue when it comes time for a new election. This poll only reaffirms that this issue is still a problem in public opinion. However, as talked about in class today, the sampling may have effected the poll results. The poll was conducted from a nation wide sample of 1,026 adults, 18 and older via telephone interviews.

As talked about in class today, it is questionable whether or not this sample is representative of the nations population. Despite the 95% confidence and the +-4 sampling error, the sample seems to be naive to those who may not have telephones. Especially today, many Americans have cell phones, especially my generation. In addittion, what about those who are to poor to afford telephones? How can those who may be below the poverty level and without phones be included in this population. Those individuals may play a crucial part in this polls results because those who may not be able to afford phones, may also not be able to afford healthcare and therefore may increase the results of those who would vote for the reform.

www.gallup.com/poll/122822/Americans-Sharply-Divided-Healthcare-Reform.aspx

Does Congress have a good grasp on healthcare issues?

Gallup recently conducted a poll that asked Americans if they thought that Congress had a good grasp on the healthcare reform issues. 2 in 3 of those polled doubted Congresses grasp on healthcare. In addittion, half 48% said they thought they had a good grasp on healthcare issues, where as only 27% say that Congress had a good grasp on the issues. This poll shows peoples lack of faith in Congress. Even though Congress has always had a significantly low approval rating, this poll shows that something should be done in order to show the U.S. that they are knowledgeable or concerned about the healthcare issues that are important to the public. Another recent poll from Gallup says that only 17% of Americans have confidence in Congress. This is significant because the members of Congress are the people who are chosen to represent the public.

This poll questions the notion that most people may be more disgruntled with President Obama on the healthcare dilemma because it is seemingly apparent that more people are moving that frustration in some regard to Congress members.



www.gallup.com/poll/121916/Two-Three-Doubt-Congress-Grasp-Healthcare-Issues.aspx

Healthcare and tax dollars

In correlation with class today, I decided to go online and find a pseudo poll on health care. Ironically, I did go to fox news and I found similar results to what the Jon Stewart clip was referring to (the one we watched in class). The title of the blog was "Should the White House Use Tax Dollars to Lobby for Healthcare Reform?" 98% (64,852) of those polled said no, 2% (1,116) said yes and <1% (161) said they were not sure.

Although the poll had a significant amount of people respond, there is no way to tell if the poll was representative to the population even though the site stated that it was not a scientific poll. Different people prefer different media outlets, mainly because of common opinions and views. Therefore, the findings of this poll may represent the common views of this media outlet, however, may not be represent the viewers of other outlets who did not get a chance to participate in the poll.

Here is a link to the poll.

www.foxnews.com/opinion/

What if no agreement can be reached?

In recent news, its has been reported that there is a possibility that Congress can pass Obama's healthcare plan without the GOP votes. However, what would this mean for the U.S. if a blatant disregard for another group is met. Is it still a democracy? Apparently some Americans are seemingly catching wind of this notion. Previously a poll was made public that said that 24% of Americans say that Democrats should pass the healthcare plan without the GOP. However, according to a most recent Rasmussen report 58% believe that the Democrats should change the bill in order to win a "reasonable amount of Republican voters." In addittion, the poll also states that 64% of those polled who are not affiliated with a political party think that the bill should be changed.

Its interesting that the U.S. government would even consider the possibility of passing reform without the approval required. Is it right for one party to trump another just because of their majority control? Also, its is interesting to note that despite the possibility of overturning such a large surplus of voters opinions, most Americans think that reform should be made to the bill in order to gain an appropriate amount of approval.


http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/august_2009/24_say_democrats_should_pass_health_care_reform_without_gop_votes

Should the government be responsible for healthcare?

In a recent poll conducted by world opinion.org, people were asked whether or not they thought that it was the governments duty to ensure basic food, eductaion and healthcare to its citizens. Due to our recent dilemma with healthcare, I thought that it was interesting that although 74% in the US said yes, the government should be responsible, 25% responded no which was by far the largest percentage of citizens saying no than any other country.

Most all other countries had a 84-98% of the population saying yes (despite India, which had some erros in its poll due to gaps) that these were areas that the government needed to be responsible for. Some, not all had universal healthcare plans.

This poll shows the different outlook that the U.S. has on the governments role in our everyday lives possibly because some may believe that if the government was able to control these three topics of interest, it may overstep the U.S. Constitution which is something that many other countries are not familiar with in their own realm of laws. The U.S. has a chunk of its population that it needs to convince before the healthcare system is handed over to its government.


http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btjusticehuman_rightsra/565.php?lb=bthr&pnt=565&nid=&id=

Citizen Satisfaction in other Countries with Universal Health Care

In a recent Gallup poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/122393/OECD-Countries-Universal-Healthcare-Gets-High-Marks.aspx, citizens who were part of a country with universal health care, had more overall satisfaction with their health care policies than those who had privately run health care.

Out of those who has universal health care, 73% had confidence in their national health care and or medical system. In addition, 79% of those polled were satisfied with the quality and availability of the health care in their area. However, out of those who had no universal health care, only 60% of those polled had confidence in their national health care/medical system and only 60% of those polled were satisfied with the quality and availability of health care in their area.

Although universal health care may seem favorable to most in regards to this poll, it may be important to take into account the death rates in both countries and the presence of various diseases, disorders, and injuries. Some in one country may be satisfied with their health care because they are not exposed to the same likelihood of illnesses that may be frequent in another country. In addition, the kind of universal health care that is offered in both countries need to be observed. Are they similar in what kinds of procedures or medications are covered? One countries universal health care may have more options than a universal health care plan that is being proposed in another country that has yet to be initiated into action.

Overall, although the poll may be informative from a general basis, I think it is imperative to look at each poll with some scrutiny in order to fully understand what/who is being polled and varying factors weighing in on those individuals.

Healthcare

Hello, my name is Meg Hogan and I am a senior at ISU. I am majoring in Political Science and Criminal Justice. Although possibly overdone, I chose to do my blog on healthcare because it is impossible to ignore it in the media and unlikely to completely diminish from the headlines for quite some time--regardless of whether or not President Obama's plan passes or not. In addittion, healthcare is not only something floods our current public opinion polls, but is likely to be present in our future public opinion polls and debates in regards to the action taken to reform/revise present day healthcare in the U.S.