HEALTH POLITICS: Inside Voters' Minds and Obama's Mandate for Change

Exit polls, like election-day red, white, and blue margaritas, are best taken with more than a few grains of salt.

At first glance, the economy was far and away the dominant issue in yesterday's election. More than 60 percent of voters listed the economy as their top issue—outpacing voters' concerns about Iraq (10 percent), health care (9 percent) or terrorism (9 percent). These findings are consistent with the last Kaiser Health Tracking Poll before the election.

But the distinction between health care and the economy is misleading.

When four in 10 voters say they're worse off financially than four years ago, it's not just 401ks and financial investments they're talking about. As Politico's David Paul Kuhn notes "a stunning two-thirds [of voters] expressed concern about affording health care."

Stunning? Sort of, until you think about how closely linked health care and economy are.

Long before the mortgage meltdown and stock market crash, Americans were struggling with rising costs and eroding coverage in their health care system. (In fact a recent study, suggests nearly half of recent home foreclosures were caused in part by a medical problem that prevented them from keeping up on their mortgage.) That's why 62 percent of respondents in that latest Kaiser tracking poll stated "it is more important than ever to take on health care reform." That's why New America's President, Steve Coll, wrote in a recent New Yorker essay, that failing to address health care will "will exacerbate the coming recession and crimp its aftermath." And that's why when people talk about Obama's mandate for change, health reform must be a part of the discussion from day one until one day when all Americans have access to comprehensive, affordable, quality health care.