 |
Health Care Important for Independents |
 |
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, health care has crept up as the top issue for independents, now #3 behind the economy and the war (but above high gas prices):
The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds that health care has crept up in importance as an election issue in recent months among a key voting group: political independents, who ranked it as highly as Democrats did in this poll.  Roughly one in four (26%) independents rank health care as one of the top issues they would “most like to hear the presidential candidates talk about.” Health care’s importance has risen among independents by eight percentage points since April.  At the same time, health care has dropped even further down Republicans’ priority list (now mentioned by 11%, a new low) and stayed roughly stable among Democrats (25%).
This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. As I’ve argued before, health care and the economy and intricately linked, and a downturn in one causes and aids a downturn in the other. In a country where the majority of bankruptcies are related to medical bills - and they have a significant hand in home foreclosures, too - voters rightly recognize health care as a priority.
Now, will politicians realize this, as well? While there’s hope - just look at all the Members of Congress that are signed on to Health Care for America Now’s vision for reform - it remains to be seen whether Washington will really get the message.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
