New Cover Missouri Poll Finds Health Care is Top Economic Concern for Show-Me State Voters

Missourians want newly elected officials to make health care affordable for all

St. Louis – Missouri voters rank health care – particularly rising health care costs – as their number one economic concern, ahead of higher taxes and job security. They want their newly elected officials to make fixing the state’s health care system, so it is more affordable for all, a top priority according to a new poll released today.

The poll was commissioned by Cover Missouri, a project of the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) with the goal of promoting quality, affordable health coverage for every Missourian.

“With the economic crisis clearly at the top of everyone’s list of overall concerns, we wanted to see if health care was a key factor in driving those fears about the economy,” said Leslie Reed, MFH Vice President for Health Policy. “The results were quite striking, in that even in the current economic climate, health care is still at the forefront of voters’ minds and that Missouri voters want the new Governor and the State Legislature to take action to address the health care crisis.”

According to the poll, which was taken prior to Election Day, when asked to look at their own situation and determine what current economic issue is most important in determining their vote for Governor and State Legislature, twenty percent of Missouri voters cited “rising health care costs,” making it the top-ranking economic issue.

“Perhaps because they understand that the cost of caring for the uninsured adds to the cost of everyone else’s health care, voters strongly favor the state taking action to make health care more affordable by extending health coverage to low-income children, seniors, disabled persons, and working families.”

Voters were also asked to choose between the following two statements:

“Some people say that with the economy in crisis, and middle class families increasingly unable to keep up, it is more important than ever that we guarantee all Americans access to affordable health care.”

“Other people say that with the financial crisis, we simply cannot afford a costly expansion of health care. That will result in a tax increase, new costly government bureaucracy, and the loss of choice in quality health care.”

By a margin of more than two-to-one (63%-31%), Missouri voters said, “it is more important than ever that we guarantee all Americans access to affordable health care.”

According to Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group, the bipartisan team that conducted the poll, “in the current environment, public desire for health care reform may well be intensifying because of, rather than in spite of, the economic recession.”

Other key findings include:

• 76% of Missouri voters said they were very or somewhat concerned about affordable health insurance for themselves and their family.
  
• 73% of Missouri voters said the following statement was a convincing argument for expanding health care in Missouri: “It’s time to get serious about covering people and reducing costs. It’s time to end charging thousands for deductibles and co-pays, denying people for pre-existing conditions, restricting the choice of doctors, and denying legitimate claims. It’s time to support middle class families that are struggling to make ends meet.”
  
• 81% of Missouri voters said the following statement was a convincing argument for expanding health care in Missouri: “Being able to see a doctor is a right, not a privilege. After all if prisoners have a right to health care, working families, children and seniors should have the right to receive medical care when they need it. That’s why we to need expand medical coverage to cover those who need it the most.”

“Missourians get it,” added Reed. “They understand that health care is a major pocket book issue and that it is imperative that our policymakers view health care as the economic concern that it is. They want action taken to solve the current economic crisis and a major part of that must be addressing the problems we have resulting from the rising costs of health care and that over 700,000 of our people lack health care coverage.”

The bipartisan poll was conducted jointly by the firms Lake Research and The Tarrance Group for Cover Missouri. Eight hundred likely Missouri voters were polled from October 22-27. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.

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