The 1988 Election: How Important Was Health?

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Abstract
Prologue: A variety of health-related issues are of intense concern to American voters, but presidential elections rarely provide a clear-cut policy mandate by which health policies are fashioned. Suppose, though, that the recent contest between George Bush and Michael Dukakis had been a referendum on health issues. How closely would their views reflect those of the American people? More extensively than ever before-a reflection of the number of health-related issue-s that concern Americans-television networks and polling organizations that examine voter attitudes through pre- and postelection opinion surveys asked key questions about univer- sal health coverage, abortion, drug abuse, and spending for health. In this paper, Robert Blendon and Karen Donelan of the Harvard School of Public Health analyze the attitudes expressed by voters and report their findings. One result is that Americans favored Dukakis's universal health plan by a two-to-one margin over the more limited proposals advanced by Bush. Another is that abortion and illegal drugs, but not the acquired immunodeficiency syn- drome (AIDS) epidemic, were important concerns to voters. Blendon, who has become the nation's foremost public opinion sur- vey analyst in relation to health issues, is chairman of the Depart- ment of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, a post he assumed two years ago after a distin- guished career at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Blendon

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