Contact: Julie Preuss
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jpreuss@healthday.com

Harris/Healthday Poll: Americans Split on Health Care Reform

NORWALK, Connecticut, USA (February 11, 2010) - Half of Americans want some kind of health reform in the next two years. But nearly 40 percent say it would be a good thing if the legislation proposed by the Democrats and President Barack Obama never materializes. And one-quarter aren't sure if health reform would be good or bad for the country.

Those are just some of the findings in a just-released poll by Harris Interactive, one of the world's leading custom market research firms, and HealthDay, a leading producer and syndicator of health news.

What concerns all Americans more these days is reducing unemployment and creating new jobs. For Democrats, health reform came next (59 percent), and for Republicans preventing a terrorist attack in the United States (64 percent) took second place, the poll found.

"HealthDay and Harris Interactive teamed up in early 2009 to begin publishing a series of national polls, gauging the nation's attitude and receptivity to changes in health care, centering on proposals offered by the Obama administration," said Jeff Walsh, executive editor of HealthDay. "These results can be a valuable point of reference for policy-makers who have influence on legislation regarding America's health care."

Read the full report for all the details of this poll. The Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll surveyed 2,075 adults online February 3-5, 2010. HealthDay's news report is available here. Full data and methodology is available at Harris Interactive.

About HealthDay

HealthDay, a division of Scout News LLC, is a leading producer and syndicator of evidence-based health news for consumers and physicians and is the largest syndicator of that news to Internet sites. Its consumer health news service (www.healthday.com) appears on more than 5,000 Web sites such as Yahoo!, MSN, iVillage, US News & World Report, hundreds of hospitals and hospital group Web sites, as well as print publication Web sites across the country. HealthDay also produces Physician's Briefing (www.physiciansbriefing.com); a news service for physicians, nurses and other medical professionals that is updated twice daily providing 15 articles a day across 27 medical specialties. HealthDay also provides custom content for major health portals. The newest addition to the HealthDay portfolio is HealthDay TV -- a 90-second news broadcast of essential health information that appears on several major media Web sites, US government Web sites and other health information sites.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us - and our clients - stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.