Women Voters See Health Care as Moral Issue
CQ.com
by Gregory L. Giroux
Health care has long been a paramount policy issue for voters – and one on which the Democratic Party traditionally has polled decidedly more favorably than the Republican Party, which tends to do best on issues of taxes and national security.
The latest survey to suggest a persistent Democratic edge on health care issues was released Thursday by two groups long allied with the party: Americans for Health Care, a project of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and EMILY’s List, the political action committee that promotes Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights.
The Democratic strategists who presented the results at an event in Washington Thursday said their party’s candidates in the 2006 midterm elections should use health care as a motivator to rally women voters who do not align with either political party — but who the strategists say will be decisive in next year’s midterm elections. The poll showed that women are more likely than men to identify health care as one of their top concerns.
“Independent and swing women voters can have a significant impact on the election,” said Ellen Golombek, SEIU’s director of government affairs. “Independent and swing women voters are clearly a force to be reckoned with, and health care is clearly an issue that moves them significantly.”
“Health care cannot be approached solely as a pocketbook issue,” White said. “Women see health care as a family value. For women, this is a morals issue, and if voters don’t hear it in that light, it will not be as effective as it could be solely as an economic issue.”
CQ Politics Weekly is a free newsletter published by Congressional Quarterly.
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