The News-Sentinel and News Channel 15 contracted with Research 2000, a nonpartisan polling firm based in Maryland, to conduct a pre-election survey in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Fort Wayne. The polling company completed phone interviews with 600 likely voters, 48 percent men and 52 percent women, Oct. 16-18. Thirty percent of the respondents identified themselves as Democrats, 33 percent as Republicans and 37 percent as “other.” The survey results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Voters in northeast Indiana have a long track record of conservative voting, but they're not so conservative that they want the government to stay out of health care.

Forty-five percent of respondents in our poll said “yes” to this question: Do you think it should be the government's responsibility to see that affordable health insurance is available for everyone?

Forty-one percent answered “no,” and 14 percent said they were not sure.

That's hardly an overwhelming mandate for even broader government involvement in health care. But that level of support in this strongly conservative corner of the state is a sign of how strong the momentum has become for some program of national health care insurance.

Support is strongest among Democrats, 79 percent of whom agreed with the question. However, even 15 percent of GOP voters and 44 percent of Independents polled said government should take on this additional responsibility.

Mary Ruthi, professor of sociology at Huntington University, wasn't too surprised by that plurality of support. Couple economic anxiety with malleable conservative principles, and people are likely to favor more government benefits for themselves.

“I think it probably reflects concerns about the economic situation. It probably reflects fear more than anything else,” she said. “They lose sight of the fact that nothing is really free.” That is, if you pay for your own health insurance, the cost is obvious. If your employer provides health insurance, that means less money is available for your wages or salary, she said. And if government picks up the tab, everyone pays the cost through higher taxes or increased national debt.

The people of northeast Indiana still consider themselves conservative, as seen in the 53-38 split between likely voters in the poll who favor Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race. What the support for a larger government role in health care means to Ruthi is that sometimes voters are “ideologically conservative, but they're functionally liberal,” she said.

Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at IPFW, looked at the poll results on health insurance as evidence that even in a conservative area, many people see the cost of and access to health care as a situation so dire that the government needs to take a role in it.

“Folks who have espoused a conservative position are often interested in the government intrusion they want,” he said. “With 46 million uninsured and costs going up for those who are insured, people recognize things have gotten crazy.”

Among the state's doctors, there's strong support for broadening access to medical care, but no consensus on how that ought to be done, said Dr. David Welsh, president of the Indiana State Medical Association.

“What's good for the patients is good for the doctors,” Welsh said. “We're very concerned about access to health care.”

But agreeing on details will be more difficult for doctors. Welsh said that at a statewide meeting of physicians last year, an informal poll found that about a third of doctors supported universal health care, a third opposed it and a third of doctors were undecided.