Health care is rarely a juicy-enough issue to garnish much notoriety during national elections. But as the New York Times writes, with the 2008 presidential primaries in full swing, the issue has candidates from both parties making bold – but different – promises.

Their approaches are very different, reflecting longstanding divisions between the parties on the role of government versus the private market in addressing the affordability and availability of health insurance. Republicans, by and large, promise to expand coverage by using a variety of tax incentives to empower consumers to buy it themselves, from private insurers. Conservatives warn, repeatedly, of Democrats edging toward the slippery slope of “government-controlled health insurance,” as former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York puts it, and tout the innovation and choice offered by private insurers.

The major Democratic candidates propose strengthening the private employer-based system, through which most working families get their coverage. But many Democrats also see a strong role for government, including, in some plans new requirements that individuals obtain insurance and that employers provide it, along with substantial new spending to subsidize coverage for people who cannot afford it.

Still, while they argue over solutions, both parties acknowledge the problems and their political urgency. Republicans, whose primaries usually turn on other issues often wait until the general election to roll out detailed health plans, but this time they are plunging into the debate far earlier. Democrats are competing furiously among themselves over who has the bigger, better plan to control costs and to approach universal coverage — a striking change from the party’s wariness on the issue a decade ago after the collapse of the Clintons’ health care initiative. [ROBIN TONER - NY Times]

Estimates from Cover the Uninsured suggest that up to 20 percent of South Carolinians are uninsured at a cost of nearly $2000 per uninsured individual.