Health care costs should be top White House concern, poll says

• Almost two-thirds of Americans say that lowering the costs of health care and health insurance should be a top priority for President Bush and Congress in 2005, a new post-election survey finds.
• Although malpractice reform and the importation of prescription drugs from Canada have been hot political topics in recent months, both were viewed as less pressing priorities by the survey respondents, despite the fact that a significant majority favored the idea of both.
• The issue of health care tied with "terrorism/national security" as No. 3 on the public's list of most pressing problems, just behind the war in Iraq and the economy, according to the results reported Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
• Many Americans did feel that passing malpractice reforms could help reduce the cost of health care, saying it would help "a lot" or "some" if laws were passed limiting the amount of money patients can receive for pain and suffering and prohibiting individuals from filing lawsuits unless a medical specialist reviews the claim.
• The message seems to resonate with the public -- but only to a certain degree.
• "When they hear President Bush talking about fixing the malpractice system as a way to lowering costs, that sort of rings true to them," said Mollyann Brodie, vice president and director of public opinion and media research at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Sixty-three percent of those surveyed cited it as a top health priority for the President and Congress.
• Majorities also agreed that lawmakers should focus on making Medicare more financially sound (58 percent) and increasing the number of Americans with insurance (57 percent).