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CBSNews /

CBS/ February 11, 2009, 4:13 PM

Poll: Dems Back Clinton On Health Care

As Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveils her health care plan today, Democratic primary voters express more confidence in her ability to handle health care than in her chief Democratic rivals, Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards, a new CBS News poll finds.

Sixty-one percent of those who plan to vote in a Democratic primary express confidence in Clinton's ability to make the right decisions about health care. Forty-two percent say they have confidence in Obama, while 39 percent say they have confidence in Edwards. Forty-nine percent say Clinton would do a better job on health care than her Democratic opponents.

Registered voters see Clinton's experience with a failed health care proposal as an asset rather than a liability. Sixty-six percent of all voters, and 77 percent on Democratic primary voters, say her past experience will help her to reform health care if she becomes president. Clinton was appointed by her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, to chair a commission on health care reform in 1993. Just 25 percent of all voters, and 15 percent of Democratic primary voters, say that experience will hurt her.

Fifty-two percent of registered voters say the lack of health care reform in the 1990s was beyond Clinton's control. Only 5 percent say she was "mostly responsible" for the lack of reform, while 39 percent say they do not know enough to have an opinion. In a CBS poll in 1994, 43 percent said Clinton's involvement was one reason health care reform did not pass, while 49 percent disagreed.

The American public continues to be dissatisfied with the quality of health care in the United States. Sixty-six percent are very or somewhat dissatisfied with the quality of health care in the country, and 81 percent are very or somewhat dissatisfied with the cost.

Seventy-six percent say the fact that many Americans do not have health insurance is a very serious problem for the United States.

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Americans were also asked to choose between keeping the current health care system, with insurance provided by private employers and some people uninsured, and a government-run system that provided universal coverage. Fifty-five percent said they preferred the government-run system, while 29 percent said they preferred the current system. This is an increase in support for the government-run system, which was favored by 47 percent of Americans in February.

There has been little change since last month in the race for the Democratic nomination. Forty-three percent of Democratic primary voters nationwide say they favor Clinton, while 22 percent favor Obama and 16 percent favor Edwards.


This poll was conducted among a random sample of 706 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone September 14-16, 2007. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus four percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved.
48 Comments Add a Comment
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mh4cbs1 says:
We need REAL health care. Abolish the corrupt and inefficient Insurance companies and HMOs. Why are we FORCED to pay for their CEO mega-million dollar salaries?

Abolish the Insurance companies - their profits are coming from your pocket! Lets run our own health care system, as citizens who hold their government responsible.

Hillary is nothing but a corporate-owned sleazy politician like so many other Democrats, who (unlike Republicans) try to pretend that they care about average hard working families.

I''m sick of the Republicrats. I''ll vote for Nader of Bloomberg if either of them run for PResident. ANYTHING except more of the same **** we have had to endure for the past several decades
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mh4cbs1 says:
So now the corporate-owned Democrats have a plan. They will FORCE every one of us to buy Insurance from their corporate funders!!
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pwrslm says:
According to the New York Times,

Industry experts are estimating that profits may reach $60 billion, on a combination of higher premiums along the coasts, no major payouts for natural disasters and strong investment returns. The insurers also had high profits on other lines of coverage like auto insurance, workers compensation and general liability.
Have you ever imagined a situation when insurance companies suggest that because they have earned too much profit, they returned money to policyholders? How much profit is enough? I do not believe our government has the right to regulate the extent to which an insurance company can make a profit; however, I also believe that policyholders have the right to demand accountability if a comany ignores its obligation of good faith and fair dealing with policyholders and instead attempts to reward shareholders.
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pwrslm says:
Health insurers%u2019 profits (and their executives%u2019 salaries) have skyrocketed, as they
raise premiums and limit reimbursement to doctors.
%u2022 %u201CDespite a weak economy and soaring medical costs, U.S. health insurers have raked in earnings at
a far greater pace than the rest of corporate America, with annual profits and margins doubling in
the last four years.%u201D4
%u2022 %u201CAverage pay for the five top executives at [the top] health insurers almost doubled [over the last
four years] to $3 million a year.%u201D5
%u2022 Health insurers raised premiums 59% during the same four-year period.6
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ryancmmc says:
Hilary is a cold horrible monster. If the country elects her (which is virtually 0) then we are screwed. To the Dems who dislike Bush...... Hilary will be the end of the world
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mudrose-2009 says:
No doubt our current system could use some tweaking - tort reform would be a nice start. But we DON''''T NEED Hillary''''s socialized medicine.

Posted by infidel_us

Good point. Tort reform would go a long way toward keeping our doctors instead of forcing them out of practice.
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whispyseas says:
'' ... journalists with hundreds others could have done 100s thousands museums each 100s weeks, giving to 100s thousands for tips, building lacking 300 sponge homes & buses for each 90,000

wedges & screws & levets & pulleys for molecules & microbes to do weed fires exponential

most folk most time didn''t dance get well feed world songs rallied round 100s millions sick beds drifting 10s millions spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail groups

i said get sick tax world keeps folk well & fed

& to label epic quests for wheelchairs as quests for gold

and pack leashed kids in dare houses

and poverty causes crime & education cures poverty & that costs money

and fill prisons with ******* & wars with sand ******* & rag heads & dared kids & stack closets 20 high with slaved ******* immigrants & forclose on whitebread & biblebread & ***** & make all lazy naked ignorant profane blemished kids of all ages disappear & keep prostitutes & pedophiles & fatties & ******* praying publicly for their souls

even free food & medicine buttons on telephones were replaced with free cuff cage spank nuke buttons

i said war rapes babies & war saves babies & cracking eggs is part of the fun

none would jump in a volcano for me, though, & when i told them they are free, they screamed: ''no''

not a flicker in oblivion, not a victim in eternal hell, but eternal storyboards swiming infinite oceans of eternal storyboards ... ''
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whispyseas says:
'' ... as much as i love to see all the naked girls dance get well soon feed the world songs all over the trails and streets and playing first aid on the trail, i love even more, much much more, seeing the big dressed men with the badges and bombs and guns and bullet proof vests dancing get sick soon tax the world songs all over the trails and streets and playing first strike on the trail as they chase the naked girls this way and chase them that way screaming all the while, get dressed you dirty ******, get dressed, this is going to hurt me alot more than it hurts you, don''t make me treat you like some kind of two year old, behave yourselfs, there''s no such thing as charity and non taxation ... ''

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infidel_us says:
Asinine, people don''''t have insurance beacause they can''''''''t afford it! Clue in folks!!!
Posted by Phareis at 02:36 PM : Sep 18, 2007

Whose fault is that? Out of the sited 47 million, how many are illegal aliens? And even if they are, does ANYONE in this country get turned away? NO!

No doubt our current system could use some tweaking - tort reform would be a nice start. But we DON''T NEED Hillary''s socialized medicine.
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phareis says:
Asinine, people don''t have insurance beacause they can''''t afford it! Clue in folks!!!
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