Poll Considers Voters’ Views on Health Care, Other Issues
USA Today on Friday in a preview of President Bush's State of the Union address published several articles and a survey on how people in the U.S. rate the president on handling various issues. According to the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll taken last week, people by a two-to-one margin believe that things have worsened in the U.S. in the last five years.
In addition, people surveyed said they trusted Democrats more than Bush on health care issues (Page, USA Today, 1/27).
As part of the series, USA Today profiled an Oregon not-for-profit organization that almost two years ago was forced to cut health care benefits for its employees because of costs. Mano a Mano, a social services agency for migrant workers, only has eight employees -- including its director, Levi Herrera -- and one has diabetes.
Eighteen months ago, Mano a Mano had to "cut overhead" to "continue serving the community" because of "the bad economy," USA Today reports. Herrera said he has not yet heard of any solutions from policymakers to help his situation, but he suggests a national health care system, such as the one in Mexico.
Hererra said, "There's a lot of things wrong with it, but it does provide some basic coverage for just about anyone who works," adding that "[e]verything that's been coming out from the [Bush] administration has been disappointing, to say the least." He and his employees have incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to consider establishing health savings accounts, which the Bush administration is currently proposing to expand, he said.
Hererra said that right now he and his employees' best bet is to "stay as healthy" as they can and "exercise more" (Loew, USA Today, 1/27)