Healthy Opinion : Health Care Deliberated

Extant literature shows that the public has great influence over policy making and resulting law. Yet survey research on Americans' attitudes towards health care has very mixed results. The Deliberative Poll® was developed to remedy problems in traditional polling techniques: citizens are uninformed about public issues. Based on the results from a Deliberative Poll conducted among students at California State University, Fullerton during the spring 2008, we assess the impact of increased knowledge and deliberation on public opinion regarding health care. The use of this polling technique gives a unique perspective on an issue of great salience and the important role of civic education at the university; if students are better equipped to absorb and deliberate over political issues, increased civic education during school years may yield a better informed public