NEJM Article Examines Health Care in the Mid-Term Election

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) examines various public polls assessing the public's mood on health reform and how it might affect the results of Tuesday's mid-term Congressional election.  Robert Blendon and John Benson of the Harvard School of Public Health argue that not only will health reform affect how individuals vote, but also that Tuesday's outcome could have a significant impact on the rest of health reform implementation. 

The authors show that Americans' view of health reform remained relatively stable before and after reform's passage.  Additionally, they put forth the following six assertions:

• Americans today generally have very negative views about the general direction of the country, which can be seen in their inclination to not vote for incumbent candidates
• Health care is an important but secondary issue in the election, with jobs and the federal budget deficit being at the forefront
• More than seven months since reform's passage, a majority of Americans neither support or oppose the package; however, 38% of registered votes believe that the US economy will be worse off than better off (21%) because of the health reform law
• 41% of registered votes think that most provisions of the law should be repealed and replaced with a completely different set of proposals
• Most registered voters (73%) who intend to vote for a Democrat support the reform law, while 80% of registered votes who intend to vote for a Republican oppose the law
• Polling results indicate that there is considerable political uncertainty about the future of the health reform law

The complete article can be found by clicking here.