This October 2007 tracking poll finds health care ranks second behind Iraq as an issue that the public wants the candidates to talk about.  The rankings hold not only for Democrats and independents, but also for Republicans.

When asked to name the two issues that they want to hear the presidential candidates talk about, people overall are most likely to name Iraq (44 percent), followed by health care (38 percent), the economy (18 percent) and immigration (12 percent).  Among Republicans, 30 percent name health care as one of the top two issues – the highest share recorded for that group since the tracking poll began in March 2007. 

The poll also examines the specific aspects of health care that the public wants candidates to address, as well as their perceptions of the presidential candidates on health issues.

This latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, the fourth in a series, was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. A nationally representative random sample of 1,204 adults was interviewed by telephone between October 1 and October 10, 2007. The margin of sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 3 percentage points; for results based on subgroups, the sampling error is higher.

 Key Findings

 Toplines