Introduction

Health care policies are an essential dimension of governmental action in advanced democracies. They are also an important concern for citizens—the issue has, after all, been at the heart of a good number of recent elections in both the US and Canada. Debates around eventual changes to any health care system will thus spark a great deal of interest from the public and the media. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that political scientists have sought to better understand what moves public opinion on the issue of health care, and to what extent these opinion movements are likely to affect public policy in this sector.