Despite the prominent role that healthcare reform is playing in the 2008 presidential election, leading Republican and Democratic pollsters agree that deep partisan divides among voters--combined with a worsening economy--may permit only incremental, rather than sweeping, changes to the healthcare system. The perspectives of political pollsters William McInturff and Celinda Lake are featured in a far-reaching thematic issue on health reform in the May/June 2008 issue of Health Affairs.
Republican pollster McInturff and colleague Lori Weigel analyze data from multiple national public opinion surveys to show how lingering perceptual barriers that doomed previous major reform efforts may do the same this round. And Democratic pollsters Celinda Lake, Robert Crittenden, and David Mermin present key opportunities and drawbacks for healthcare reform. Although the 2008 election could “set the stage for the most significant reform of the U.S. healthcare system since Medicare,” Lake and colleagues warn that the political system is slow to act and that a well-funded opposition will work hard to prevent major change.
