In the shadow of 9/11: Health care reform in the 2004 presidential election

The real-world problems of providing affordable medical care for seniors and the non-elderly have intensified and, yet, the range of what policy makers and reform advocates see as responsible or even conceivable remedies is narrower in the 2004 presidential campaign than what it was during Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992. This article explains this paradox by studying what is on the minds of voters and how the candidates are responding. It suggests that the political response to comparable real-world conditions in health care have been diminished by the newfound attention to national security, changing public perceptions toward health care, and the political calculations of politicians as they react to well-organized interest groups and the demands of new national and international issues.