Health care top domestic concern - US poll

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) Access to affordable health care is the top domestic concern among Americans and a majority say the US government should guarantee health insurance to every American, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll release.

While the war in Iraq remains the top overall issue among Americans, health care is the No. 1 concern on the domestic agenda, ranked as far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values, the poll wheele was released yesterday said.

Nearly two-thirds said the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans and half said they would be willing to pay as much as 500 dollars more in taxes a year for universal coverage, it said.

Only 24 per cent said they were satisfied with President George W Bush's handling of the issue, despite his recent initiatives, and 62 per cent said Democrats -- not Republicans -- were more likely to improve the health-care system.

Looking ahead to the 2008 presidential campaign, 36 per cent said they had confidence in the ability of Democratic contender Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York to ''make the right decisions on health care,'' while 49 per cent said they were uneasy about it, according to the poll.

Clinton retained the confidence of nearly six in 10 Democrats on the issue, despite the politically devastating collapse 13 years ago of the national health initiative she helped develop early in her husband's presidency, it said.

Nearly 47 million Americans, or more than 15 per cent of the population, go without health insurance, up 6.8 million since 2000.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, another Democratic presidential candidate, recently unveiled a plan that would require everyone to have insurance and require employers to provide it or pay into a fund that would do so. Nearly four in 10 polled said that was a good idea; nearly half said they were unsure.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday with 1,281 adults, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

REUTERS SHB RK0908