HispanicBusiness

U.S. adults say they favor President Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney on healthcare, a United Press International poll released Wednesday indicated.

Results of the UPI-CVoter survey indicated 44 percent of adults said they think Obama is better able to address healthcare reform and 32 percent said they thought Romney could.

Overall, women favor Obama 48 percent to 33 percent for Romney, while 39 percent of men said they back Obama and 31 percent said they favored Romney, results indicated.

Obama and Romney have butted heads over public funding of healthcare, a key feature of Medicaid, Medicare and Obama's signature Affordable Healthcare Act, which Republicans call "Obamacare" and Romney has pledged to repeal.

Broken down by age, those in the 18-to-34 age group said they overwhelmingly back Obama over Romney, 53 percent to 15 percent, results indicated. Those ages 35 to 54 said they favor Obama 37 percent to 36 percent and those ages 55 and above are evenly split between the two at 43 percent.

Among very conservative Republicans, 64 percent said they prefer Romney over Obama. Among liberals, 83 percent back Obama on healthcare, while 7 percent said they prefer Romney.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews Sept. 18-24 with 883 adults. The margin of error for the total sample is 3.5 percentage points.