Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Developments Related to Health Care in the Presidential Election
Summaries of coverage related to health care issues in the presidential election appear below.
- Concerns of older voters: The Economist on Thursday examined the proposals that the major presidential candidates have announced for Medicare and other issues that affect older voters (The Economist, 10/30).
- Examination of health care proposals: The Orange County Register on Thursday examined the differences in the health care proposals announced by the major presidential candidates and their potential effects on the uninsured and businesses (Bunis, Orange County Register, 10/30). In addition, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on Friday examined the lack of details that the candidates have released about their plans for "treating a growing population of ailing seniors" (Wang, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 10/31).
- Link between agriculture, health problems: Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in a recent interview with Time Magazine appeared to link agriculture with a number of health problems, such as obesity and heart disease, the Des Moines Register reports. During the interview, Obama said that agriculture is "partly responsible for the explosion in our health care costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in health care costs." However, according to a statement released by his campaign on Thursday, Obama "believes there are a lot of factors that contribute to obesity, heart disease and other health problems, but he certainly doesn't blame farmers" (Brasher, Des Moines Register, 10/31).
