Contacts: Janet Davenport and Bob Slate, 203.639.0550

An overwhelming majority of Connecticut voters – 84 percent – say they favor ensuring quality affordable health care for all residents, according to a survey released today by Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut. Almost half (46 percent) of the voters surveyed ranked fixing the state’s broken health care system as a top priority, putting it above reducing taxes, creating jobs and improving public education.

“These overwhelming numbers are striking. The message they send to legislators is clear. They should listen to what voters are telling them: people want comprehensive solutions,” said Juan A. Figueroa, president of Universal Health Care Foundation. In fact, an overwhelming number of voters surveyed – 83 percent – said they do not think state legislators devote enough time or resources toward fixing the problems in the state’s health care system.

The foundation sponsored the survey for its own planning purposes, but decided to release the findings in light of recent national polls showing that American voters are even willing to make trade-offs to make affordable health care available to everyone, foundation officials said.

“We are heartened by the reinforcement from the New York Times/CBS poll released last week and even the Quinnipiac Poll last month,” Figueroa said, referring to the two polls showing American voters favor making health insurance available to every American even if it means paying higher taxes and forgoing tax cuts.

The New York Times poll found Americans across party lines willing to make some sacrifice to ensure everyone in the country has access to health care, foundation officials said. “We realized from our own work and surveys that Connecticut voters across party lines are ready for real change and are willing to make sacrifices for quality health care for everyone,” Figueroa said.

Voters in the foundation survey pool were almost evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and Independents; 32 percent, 28 percent and 31 percent respectively. Most survey respondents – 75 percent – have some college or more, and all were insured, foundation officials said. Click here to read the survey