Presidential politics and the new Kaiser health care tracking poll

The Kaiser Family Foundation kicked off a tracking poll on health care issues in connection with the presidential campaign.  First installment’s surprise: health care ranks ahead of the economy among voters’ top three concerns (after Iraq).  It was the economy until recently.  This is one of those classic chicken-and-egg questions: Are the candidates talking health care because that’s what people want to hear (chicken), or do people say they’re concerned about health care because Hillary, John, Barack, Dennis, Mitt and the rest of them are talking health care (egg)?  (I vote "egg" — since people were more concerned about the economy a couple months ago and not much has improved there.)

Update 4/1/07: HFMA notes that a Harris poll found healthcare pulling ahead of Iraq, fuel costs and global warming.

— David Harlow