Making Health an Election Issue

The Kaiser Family Foundation has launched the website health08.org âto provide a central hub for resources and information about health policy issues in the 2008 election.â In a Boston Globe editorial, KFF president and CEO Drew Altman observes, âIn a short period of time health has gone from an issue that was not even included on the list of seven issues voters were asked about on the national exit poll in last November's election to the number one domestic issue and the number two issue overall behind Iraq on several recent polls.â Even so, he goes on to state, âThere will no chance at legislation in the Congress in 2009 unless there is a big national debate about health reform in the presidential campaign.â

The site features news related to health and politics, analyses from KFF (on SCHIP, Medicare, state-by-state health data, and more), and the obligatory videos and podcasts. As of this morning, four of the ten items on the News page are about Republican candidatesâ stance on abortion.

Although state races get a nod, the focus is clearly on the presidential campaign. Each declared Republican and Democratic presidential candidate gets his or her own page, which basically consists of links to health-related items on the candidateâs website.

Kaiser Family Foundation has long been a top resource for anyone interested in health policy; if youâre already a regular reader of KFFâs websites or emails, health08.org wonât give you much youâre not already seeing. For concerned voters who havenât been avid followers of health issues before, though, this may be an accessible way to get more information and demonstrate concern for the issue. For candidates, it may be one more sign that health isnât an issue they can handle with simple sound bites.