President Obama's once overwhelming lead on health care issues over former Gov. Mitt Romney has narrowed substantially and is almost eradicated on Medicare as the two continue to battle it out in the final push for the White House, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
The president—who had a double digit lead over Republican contender Mitt Romney in September on health reform, health costs and Medicaid—now has a lead in the single digits.
More likely voters still say they trust Obama over Romney on Medicaid (46 percent to 39 percent); lowering costs (46 percent to 39 percent) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (48 percent to 40 percent), but by a much smaller percentage than even one month ago.
On determining the future of Medicare, 46 percent of likely voters say they trust Obama to do a better job and 41 percent trust Romney. In September, the president held a 52 percent to 36 percent advantage.
That's despite the fact that 61 percent of likely voters continue to oppose the idea of changing Medicare to a premium support system, which Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, have proposed to do. Senior voters are the most likely to oppose switching to premium support: 72 percent prefer keeping Medicare as is, compared to 58 percent of likely voters under 65.
Yet opinion against the Medicare premium support idea, which Obama opposes, doesn't appear to have translated into an advantage with seniors for the president when it comes to Medicare. Older voters are more likely to trust Romney than Obama on Medicare, 48 percent to 43 percent. The former Massachusetts governor boasts an even bigger lead among those 55 to 64, with 53 percent saying they trust Romney more on Medicare and just 40 percent saying they trust Obama.
