Presidential Candidates Obama, McCain Win Primaries in Maryland; Virginia; Washington, D.C.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) won presidential primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., the New York Times reports (Broder/Sussman, New York Times, 2/13).

Democratic voters in Maryland and Virginia were asked in exit polls which of the following concerns were most important to them: the economy, the Iraq war and health care. Obama "easily bested" opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) among voters in both states who cited the economy and the Iraq war as their most important concern. In Maryland, Obama "nearly tied" with Clinton among those who cited health care, the Associated Press reports. Exit polls of Republican voters in Maryland and Virginia asked which of the following were most important to them: the economy, the Iraq war, terrorism and illegal immigration. McCain received more support than opponent former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among voters who cited the economy as their most important concern in both states.

The exit polls, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, included responses from voters in 30 precincts in both Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland, the exit polls had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points among Democratic voters and plus or minus six percentage points among Republican voters. In Virginia, the exit polls had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points among Democratic voters and plus or minus five percentage points among Republican voters (Associated Press, 2/13).

Opinion Pieces
Two recent opinion pieces addressed health care in the presidential election. Summaries appear below.

• Arthur Garson, USA Today: Preventive care "saves lives" and "is the right thing to do," but "prevention does not save money," Garson, an executive vice president, provost and former dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Garson adds, "We prevent one disease just long enough to get another one, and dying in the future is more expensive, as health care costs increase more rapidly than other costs." Wellness programs, such as those sponsored by employers, "do save money" because chronic diseases have a "cost to companies in economic productivity." However, as a recent study indicates, efforts to prevent smoking and obesity do not reduce lifetime health care costs, Garson writes. He writes that many presidential candidates "have proposed improving efficiency and eliminating waste in the health care system," such as by moving to electronic health records or eliminating variations in health care. "These are laudatory goals that we can all work on," Garson states. He concludes, "Prevention saves lives, and that's a worthy goal. Prevention just does not make money available for the uninsured" (Garson, USA Today, 2/13).
  
  
• Star Parker, Washington Times: Clinton, "having once failed to explicitly nationalize the one-fifth of our economy going to health care, now wants to slip it past us by dressing it up in drag," Parker, a Scripps Howard columnist and president of the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education, writes in a Times opinion piece. "Indeed, we have a problem in the delivery of health care in our country," but costs have "gone out the roof" because "health care already has become a highly regulated and bureaucratized industry," Parker writes, adding, "If we want cheaper and more creatively delivered health care, we need less, not more, government." In addition, she writes, "Beyond the pure economic calculus lies the moral question of individual responsibility and freedom." The "health care ills" faced by the U.S. are "symptomatic" of "a society where the link between personal responsibilities and costs" is "largely severed," Parker writes. She adds that the Clinton health care proposal is the "antithesis of everything that a free society is about" and "will simply dig the hole into which we are sinking deeper." According to Parker, more "individual freedom, choice and responsibility in both the delivery and purchase of health care is our only hope" to reduce costs and address "social ills" (Parker, Washington Times, 2/13).

Broadcast Coverage
NPR's "Fresh Air from WHYY" on Tuesday included a discussion with Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of social medicine and health policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, about the health reform plans of the presidential candidates (Gross, "Fresh Air from WHYY," NPR, 2/12). Audio of the segment is available online.

WBUR's "On Point" on Wednesday reported how to control health care costs. The segment includes comments from Shannon Brownlee, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and Regina Herzlinger, a professor at Harvard Business School who has advised the campaigns of presidential candidates Clinton and McCain (Ashbrook, "On Point," WBUR, 2/13). Audio of the segment will be available online after the broadcast.