More People Think Health Care Is An Urgent Issue Than Think The Iraq War Is

A recent Wall Street Journal poll caught my eye.

The poll found that 52% said the economy and health care are most important to them in choosing a new president compared to 34% that said terrorism and social and moral issues were most important.

That is the opposite of what people thought at the time of the 2004 election.

Here's the surprise for me. The poll also showed, "health care eclipsing the Iraq war for the first time as the issue most urgently requiring a new approach."

I said to someone yesterday, who has also been through the health car wars for many years, we health policy folks ought to be ecstatic about all the attention health care is getting. But I also said all of the scars from health care efforts started and stalled don't make me overly confident.

It is important voters demand the health care problem be solved by the next president and Congress. If the new guys just come to Washington with more of all of the partisan bickering we are seeing on the budget and SCHIP today, we will go nowhere.

There continue to be more reasons health care reform can fail than succeed. Voters need to send an unambiguous message.