And they're
not happy about Medicare.
Older Americans are confused and unhappy about upcoming changes in the federal Medicare health program, according to a nonpartisan survey released on Tuesday that indicates the issue could help Democrats win the November vote.
The Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard School of Public Health found that 47 percent of the 1,223 Medicare beneficiaries surveyed had an unfavorable view of Medicare reforms like the prescription drug benefit, 26 percent viewed the reforms favorably, and 25 percent said they didn't know.
The drug benefit will be implemented in 2006.
Even Republicans were closely split, with 38 percent in favor of the reforms and 36 against them.
While not the driving issue in the election, don't discount the effect in a close election. Seniors don't like to change horses in midstream, and they've yet to be Kerry's most reliable demographic... but they do reliably vote, and there's more election season to come. Stay tuned, as health care will be a bigger topic (not bigger than Iraq or the economy) as November gets closer.