The blue collar workers who are particularly activated in this issue are, by and large, younger. Other research shows that they are partial to technology and worried about their own job skills and their children's education. They also are particularly supportive of a government role in education and of policies that make technologies more broadly available. At the opposite end of the spectrum, senior citizens are among the least enthusiastic-as are Bush voters, conservative Republicans, and older college educated people. These groups are cost-sensitive and in general resist big government.
Seniors also seem significantly less engaged in new technologies and the information highway.
Communications in the health care debate As the health care reform plan advances, there is a real opportunity to bring issues of communications technology forward. Advances in information technology can go a long way to reduce administrative costs and paperwork, which the Administration has targeted as a key goal of health care reform. Three-quarters of Americans think reducing paperwork is a convincing reason to support health care reform and believe that reducing paperwork could significantly reduce health care costs. On the positive side, people see health care as an important issue that should be universal. The flip side, however, is that people do not readily translate their health care concerns to information technologies.