Forty-four percent of Sermo physicians polled found Senator McCain’s healthcare plan to be “beneficial to the country,” compared with 30% that said Senator Obama’s is beneficial.
Additionally, 51% said Obama’s plan is not beneficial for the country, versus 31% who said McCain’s plan is not beneficial.
Sermo’s polling was conducted following a Q&A with both candidates – McCain and Obama were asked to respond to five questions each. The questions posed to both candidates were proposed and voted on by Sermo physicians.
After reviewing the answers from each camp, 30% of the polled physicians said the candidates’ answers would change their vote from the candidate they’d previously supported. Twenty-three percent of those who read Obama’s answers said they were influenced toward McCain, while 10% of the respondents said McCain’s answers had swayed them toward Obama.
The polling closed on Friday, October 31, according to a Sermo spokesperson. Sermo is the largest physician-only online community, with approximately 90,000 US physician members. A ballpark number of physicians that participated in the poll weren’t immediately available, although the spokesperson said it was “in the thousands.”
