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Voters and health care in the 1998 election.

AN IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS looking toward the future is the nature of the health agenda of the new Congress and of the current administration in Washington. One important way to gain insight into the congressional agenda is to understand what were the priorities and views of voters in the most recent election. This is the fourth in a series of reports published in JAMA about voters’ views on health care issues. Using the results of 3 postelection surveys of self-described voters in the 1998 congressional elections combined with 24 national opinion surveys and secondary analysis of an election-day exit poll of voters, this article examines voters’ priorities and views. The 1998 congressional elections were unusual because of the closeness of the aggregate vote between the 2 major parties. Republican candidates won 49.1% of the vote, Democratic candidates 47.8%. This close vote left Republicans with a 223:211 seat advantage in the US House of Representatives; Republicans maintained a 55:45 seat advantage in the US Senate. In examining the implications of the 1998 elections for health care policy, this article pays particular attention to 3 questions: (1) How important were health care issues in the 1998 elections? (2) What were the voters’ health care priorities for the new Congress? and (3) What did voters favor having Congress do about key health care issues that received extensive media, public, and professional attention prior to the elections? In particular, what were voters’ views on the reform of Medicare, the problems of the uninsured, and concerns about managed care?