Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories examining the top issues of concern for The Eagle-Tribune's 154 voters participating in the presidential campaign coverage project.

Affordable health care - that's what it boils down to for many New Hampshire voters when they decide who should be the next president.

The Eagle-Tribune polled voters in 16 Southern New Hampshire towns and 86 percent of them listed health care in their top 10 topics of concern.

While voters interviewed said they want affordable health care and lower prescription drug costs, most don't think a universal health-care system is the answer.

They still want to be able to choose their medical provider and their insurance company - and they don't want to wait months for services and elective surgery.

Paula Bonasoro of Sandown bought her own insurance plan, she said, because the one offered through her job is too expensive.

"I don't think the government should have to take care of everyone," said Bonasoro, 42. "But it should crack down on hospitals and have control over what they charge."

Bonasaro said she pays $600 a month for her own insurance. She can't afford the $1,400-a-month premium for family coverage, so her husband is on his own.

"Luckily, he's healthy," she said.

But that's not a good risk to take, as Bonasoro well knows.

"I was recently in intensive care (at a local hospital) for three days," she said. "It cost $140,000. I could have lost my home if I wasn't insured."

Ola Lessard, 38, a Londonderry mother of two young girls, is self-employed and said she wouldn't be able to afford her own insurance. She is covered under her husband's insurance, which he has through his job.

"Obviously, a one-size-fits-all plan doesn't work," Lessard said. "But you need to be able to have the basics of coverage."

Windham resident Joan Janos, 68, said she doesn't mind paying for Medicare, but she has had it with skyrocketing health care and prescription costs.

"The country doesn't hold the doctors and the hospitals responsible either," Janos said. "They push pills and don't tell you what other problems these medications cause. When doctors make the same mistakes again and again, they should be held accountable."

Janos said she "doesn't believe a word any of the candidates say," but that she is leaning toward John McCain.

McCain - along with John Edwards, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Sam Brownback, and Ron Paul - proposes allowing the federal government to negotiate lower prices for Medicare's prescription drug program, known as Medicare Part D.

Current Medicare law prohibits government negotiation with pharmaceutical companies.

Evan Carlson, a spokesman for Sen. Joe Biden's campaign office, said Biden is "adamant about making sure Medicare can negotiate with drug companies."

Half of the current crop of candidates support importing drugs from other countries at a lower cost to consumers.

Although health care wasn't on her top 10 list of issues, Londonderry resident Mary Wing Soares said she thinks drug prices are unnecessarily inflated.

"Why is the cost of a name-brand drug so high, when a generic drug is so much less?" Soares asked. "My mother and mother-in-law are in their 80s and need Medicare, supplemental insurance and prescription coverage. It's too much."

Alan Murdock's 8-year-old son has cerebral palsy.

"My concern is to see the expansion of Medicaid or Medicare services for the disabled," he said. "Health insurance does not cover home renovations to accommodate a disabled child."

Murdock said he recently spent $160,000 to modify his Derry home for his son's wheelchair.

"I still need to spend another $30,000 more," he said, "but will only get about $20,000 in grants to cover all of this."

Murdock, 45, a database engineer, said his private health insurance plan is good, but there are a lot of things it won't cover for his child.

"I've met around 50 other families in the Derry area like ours," he said. "It's sad when I look at all these families struggling to pay mortgages and medical bills."

Murdock said the country should focus more on preventive health care.

"It's much cheaper to prevent illness than to treat it once someone becomes sick," he said.

Gov. Mike Huckabee is one candidate addressing this issue, along with Clinton, Biden, Edwards and Barack Obama.

"We don't have a health-care crisis in this country as much as we have a health crisis," Huckabee said. "We need to focus more on preventive health care and living healthier lives."

Younger voters are concerned about the future of health care, too.

"I'm worried about not being insured after I graduate," said Ashlee Willis, a 21-year-old senior at Colby-Sawyer College.

Although New Hampshire recently passed a bill allowing young adults to remain on their parents' insurance plan until the age of 26, many other states do not have this option.

Pinkerton Academy senior Shelagh Mollohan will be a first-time voter next year.

"It's upsetting for parents to worry about whether their child should be taken to the doctor's office for an illness because they can't afford it," Mollohan, 18, said. "And, if the student is out of school for five days, they need a doctor's note."

Another proposal to reduce health-care costs is to support technology that would allow medical providers to use electronic medical records. All the candidates - with the exception of McCain and Duncan Hunter - have addressed this in their health-care platforms.

Electronic medical records would allow patients to access their own records and make it easier to change doctors or move from state to state without unnecessarily repeating certain tests and other diagnostic procedures. The candidates in favor of this emphasized the need for privacy.