We are going to analyze a few of the states with a toss up in this election. After we discuss each state, we will name the candidate with the advantage, in our opinion.



In Florida, Republican Governor Charlie Crist recently passed a law that allowed certain health insurance plans to be stripped of state-mandated benefits so they could have lower costs. This suggests that Florida voters might tend to support leaders who favor less regulation and more competition in the individual health insurance market. Advantage: McCain

Ohio has been a key battleground state in the past few elections. Like many voters around the country, Ohio voters are most concerned about the economy. And because health care is a whopping 16.3 percent of the gross national product, a broken health care system is automatically an economic problem. Now that it looks like we're headed to, or already in, a recession, Ohio could likely be looking for major economic and health care policy change. Advantage: Obama

Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell has favored expanding programs like the State's Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). He has attempted to pass health care reforms through the State Legislation. Given the fact that Pennsylvania has given its 21 Electoral College votes to a Democrat in the past couple elections, we are thinking they will do the same this year. Obama rules.

So what do the polls say? Voters were split down the middle on whether the government should step in to keep health care costs down or if market competition could do the trick itself. According to a tracking poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 45 percent said the government needs to step in and 44 percent said market competition would do the better job.

Overall in the nation, it looks like Obama has the health insurance edge. When people were polled as to which candidate shared their view on health insurance, 54 percent said Obama, 25 percent answered McCain.