经济学人下载:医疗制度,纽约老人起来反抗

But the fall in Ms Corwin’s support could be more because of her endorsement of Paul Ryan’s proposal to replace Medicare, the public health-care scheme for the elderly, with diminishing government subsidies for private insurance. Her opponent, Ms Hochul, has made Medicare the main issue of her campaign. “We can alter the national debate with one election,” she says. Voting for her, she claims, would send a message to Republicans in Washington. She has received the backing of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which previously campaigned for the Republican who represented the area until 2008. Her message is going down well in the district, where almost a quarter of voters are over 65 and almost two-thirds are over 45.

不过，科温选票下跌原因远不止如此，这缘于她对保罗??瑞安提议替换老年保健医疗制度的支持，老年保健医疗制度是对老年人公共保健的方案，该提议提出削减政府对私人医疗保险的津贴。她的竞争对手胡赫尔将老年保健医疗制度作为她竞选的主要方案，她说：“我们可以通过一次选举改变全国民众争论。”她宣称，投票给她，就以为着向华盛顿的共和党员发出信息。她已经获得了全国维护社会保障和医疗保险委员会的支持，此前该组织为共和党竞选，在2008年前共和党是该地区的代表。胡赫尔的思想在该地区十分受欢迎——这里有四分之一的选民超过了65岁，三分之二选民超过了45岁。

A loss in the 26th would be a huge embarrassment for the Republicans, suggesting that many other seats might be at risk in 2012. So the party has been pumping money into the race, and has also started to send in the heavy artillery. Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, campaigned for Ms Corwin last week, and John Boehner, the speaker of the House, appeared at a Corwin fund-raising lunch on May 9th. He said there that the “Democrats are hoping they can steal this election so they can continue to move their agenda, which is more taxes and higher spending.” This got loud jeers from the faithful, but it remains to be seen whether ordinary elderly voters will agree.

对于共和党民来说，若第26区选举失败将会是一个莫大的羞辱，这意味着2012年有更多的国会议员的位置将受到威胁。因此，共和党在这次竞选中投入大量资金，并开始着手向重型火炮注资。众议院的多数党领袖埃里克??坎托上个星期为科温争取选票，众议院发言人约翰??博纳在5月9日参与了科温的筹资午餐会，他在聚会上说：“民主党人希望他们能偷走此次共和党选举胜利的果实，这样他们就可以继续更改议事日程，增加税收、扩大支出。”此番言论受到了忠诚的民主党人的大肆嘲笑，不过普通的老人选民是否同意这一观点，还有待观察。

The turnout tends to be low in special elections, as elsewhere; but politicians can usually depend on older voters to make the effort. In the 26th district, the voting intentions of the elderly have never been more important.

和其他地方一样，此次参与递补选举的人数偏少，但一般来说，政客们依赖于老人选民为此次选举投上关键票。在第26区，该地区老年人投票意图的重要程度可谓是史无前例。