How do you get America back on track?

Well, we can't really answer that question, so we decided to try to answer one like that (and one that we actually know something about): How do you get America's backs back on track?

In September 2008, SpineUniverse ran a survey about one of America's nearly ubiquitous health problems: back pain. We asked Americans what's causing it and what can be done to fix it. Then, most importantly, we asked who should pay for it.

Inspired by the presidential election (inspired might not be the right word), SpineUniverse decided to see if there's a noticeable right or left slant to how people think we should deal with this particular health care issue. In the final question of the survey, we asked about their political affiliations (they could, of course, opt to not answer). For this article, we're focusing on the people who self-identified as Republican or Democrat.

And here's what we found: Americans can reach across the proverbial aisle when it comes to their spines. Because back pain doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat—you're almost guaranteed to get back pain at some point in your life, regardless of if you lean to the left or to the right (and if you are indeed literally leaning to the left or the right, your poor posture may have something to do with your back pain).

But the aisle is just too wide to really bridge, so back pain is more of a bridge to nowhere. When it comes to who should pay to fix our back and neck pain problem, Democrats and Republicans head back to their respective sides and talking points.

Read more:

• Question 1: What's causing our back pain?
• Question 2: How can we fix it?
• Question 3: Who should pay for it?