Health Care for All? Most American Say Yes

Over at the NYT, Robin Toner and Janet Elder are reporting that a new poll shows a majority of Americans support guaranteed health care for all citizens--even if it means increasing taxes today and killing all future tax cuts. 47 million Americans--that's a full 15% of the population--currently have no form of health insurance, and it seems that most of us understand that that's just unacceptable. In fact, in terms of domestic issues, health care issues out rank immigration, tax cuts and "values" on voters lists of concerns with regard to the upcoming election.

So does this give Hillary, with her strong health care background, any kind of edge? That bit is less clear, not least of all because though the poll demonstrates widespread support of coverage for all, Americans remain pretty divided about what that coverage should look like--i.e., whether it should be government sponsored (as the Clinton plan suggested) or managed by private entity. It's that old, Democrat/Republican split again, but still good to see that the issue is at the top of lots of minds, whether those minds run Red or Blue.