- The role they think government should play in healthcare
- The importance of the issue to them compared to other campaign issues
Determining Candidate Placements
We assessed major candidates' positions on six healthcare issues from two perspectives:
Because these two measures alone can't adequately describe a candidate's views on healthcare, we summarize their specific proposals in text that pops up when you mouse over each candidate's head on the PoliGraph.
Assessing Positions
To determine a candidate's position on healthcare reform, we took into account the following:
- Official healthcare proposals on their websites, plus white papers, press releases, videos and blog entries on the sites
- Comments in public forums such as debates, town hall meetings, speeches, etc.
- Descriptions of their views in industry publications, news articles and editorials
- Previous actions taken on healthcare issues
Assessing Importance
To determine how important an issue is to a candidate, we took into account the following:
- Level of detail in their proposals
- The candidates' statements in public forums
- Prominence of the issue on their websites
- The number and detail of press releases and other official campaign statements
- Previous actions taken on healthcare issues
