AP Poll: Health care overhaul has a pulse

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers –

WASHINGTON – The fever has broken. The patient is out of intensive care. But if you're President Barack Obama, you can't stop pacing the waiting room. Health care overhaul is still in guarded condition.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll has found that opposition to Obama's health care remake dropped dramatically in just a matter of weeks. Still, Americans remain divided over complex legislation that Democrats are advancing in Congress.

The public is split 40-40 on supporting or opposing the health care legislation, the poll found. An even split is welcome news for Democrats, a sharp improvement from September, when 49 percent of Americans said they opposed the congressional proposals and just 34 percent supported them.

Anger about health care boiled over during August. Lawmakers returning home for town hall meetings faced outcries that the government was trying to take over the system, ushering in higher costs, lower quality — even rationing and euthanasia.

=snip=

The poll found that 68 percent of Democrats support the congressional plans, up from 57 percent in early September. Opposition among independents plunged from 51 percent to 36 percent. However, only 29 percent of independents currently support the plans in Congress. Among seniors, opposition fell from 59 percent in September to 43 percent now. Almost four in 10, 38 percent, now support it, compared with 31 percent in September.

"It's very significant that there's an upturn in support for the plans because after August there was a sense that the whole effort was beginning to decline and would not come back in terms of public support," said Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor who tracks public opinion on health care.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091007/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ap_poll_health_care

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Some reasonably good news, at last. However, the recent NYT poll said 65& were behind the public option. Which poll is has the more valid sampling method?

[MrModerate]

1. Opposition doesn't mean those people think no reform should be attempted . . .

It could as easily be that the plans on the table don't go far enough. I think if you ask most DUers, they'd say that.

[shadowknows69]

2. Whatever the status of HCR, I think we can do without the medical analogies

I think they're rather insulting to people, like a friend of mine, who is still in intensive care because a lifetime of not being able to afford health care let a big problem get life threateningly larger. Fuck you AP.

[midnight]

3. A majority of Americans have always wanted affordable access to health care.

The information wars will not deter the people.