Healthcare issues seek nominees' attention

NASHVILLE, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Healthcare reform advocates say they're hoping the major-party U.S. presidential nominees will start talking more about insurance and cost issues.

As U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., were preparing to meet Tuesday night in Nashville for their second presidential debate, the issues of U.S. residents without health insurance and reducing costs in the healthcare system have been pushed into the background because of the global credit crisis and energy prices, Politico, a Washington publication, reported.

A September poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicated the economy was considered the top issue by 56 percent of respondents, with the Iraq war second at 25 percent and healthcare third at 21 percent.

But those hoping to get healthcare back onto the front burner say the Nashville debate's town-hall-style format may allow for more questions on the subject, Politico said.

"There's some concern in some corridors that, given the current economic state of our budget and the economy overall, taking on healthcare may be just too much, too big. I would argue exactly the opposite," Ken Thorpe, executive director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, told Politco.