On the Health Affairs blog, Kaiser Family Foundation president Drew Altman and Harvard's Bob Blendon say public opinion alone won't drive health care reform. Excerpts:
“What health needs most to rise up in American politics is for national political candidates, whether from the political left, right, or center, to begin talking about the issue again as they did in the early nineties. Most important of all are the presidential candidates, who receive so much national media attention. If even one major candidate begins to seriously address health reform, the others will be forced to follow suit. … If [candidates] do play a leadership role on health, the media will follow, and the agenda-setting power of a debate driven from the top will meet the public’s concerns rising up from the bottom like two weather fronts colliding. ...
We poll the public all the time, and we believe that it is unrealistic to expect public opinion, on its own, to reach some new tipping point that will create a tidal wave for health reform. For health to compete more effectively with other issues on the national agenda, it will take leadership in the form of visible political candidates willing to champion the issue, and the media attention that follows. Greater attention on the part of all interested in achieving change in American health care should be directed towards that goal, and towards developing policy proposals that can bridge the ideological divide and provide a basis for legislative action when health reform makes it back to the national agenda. Unless these things happen, we are unlikely to see major change in health care in the foreseeable future."
