From coast to coast: regional variations in the affordability of health care: findings from the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey.

R ecord growth in health care costs and increasing instability in health insurance coverage have combined to make health care a central issue in the 2004 presidential election. Nearly all the candidates who competed in the Democratic primary, as well as President Bush, proposed formal plans to expand health insurance coverage and make it more affordable. The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, conducted between September 2003 and January 2004, finds that majorities of Americans from each region of the country strongly support federal efforts to extend health insurance to more people. Underpinning this sentiment is a growing affordability crisis in health care, as families across the United States experience reductions in insurance coverage that threaten their financial security.