AP Poll: Health care law making us muddle-minded

[TomCADem]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Six months after President Barack Obama signed the landmark health care law, the nation still doesn't really know what's in it. More than half of Americans mistakenly believe the overhaul will raise taxes for most people this year, an Associated Press poll finds. But that would be true only if most people were devoted to indoor tanning, which got hit with a sales tax.

Many who wanted the health care system to be overhauled don't realize that some provisions they cared about actually did make it in. And about a quarter of supporters don't understand that something hardly anyone wanted didn't make it: They mistakenly say the law will set up panels of bureaucrats to make decisions about people's care — what critics labeled "death panels."

The uncertainty and confusion amount to a dismal verdict for the Obama administration's campaign to win over public opinion. Before the final votes in Congress, Obama personally assured wavering Democrats he'd take the case to the American people after the law passed. But it hasn't worked. And in the final stretch before the midterm elections Republicans are united by their call for repeal.

* * *
However, for Democrats and independents, the more accurate knowledge people had of the bill, the more they liked it.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSXIViw_RWvU3uweKkhKfhAVGgqgD9ICHR1O2

---

The blame the Obama administration and give the Republicans a free pass narrative continues with the Associated Press blaming the Obama administration for the prevalence of such myths as the presence of Death Panels. The Shirley Sherrod fiasco was not due to the corporate media's willingness to spread a right wing lie, it is because the Obama administration failed to combat that lie. Yet, when the Obama administration tries to combat such lies, then these efforts are spun as being "defensive."

Once again, to what degree will liberals and Democrats buy into this corporate narrative that blames Democrats for the failure of the media to engage in real journalism, as well as the willingness of the corporate media to repeat and spread right wing talking points.

[NYC_SKP]

1. K&R: "...the more accurate knowledge people had of the bill, the more they liked it."

At least for Democrats and independents.

:patriot:

[TheEuclideanOne]

2. I blame the Obama administration

They have done an absolutely horrible job of getting the message out on EVERYTHING!!!! I don't see how you can NOT blame them. Republicans do not have any problem in getting their message out. Let's take the example of this new point at which the new features of the healthcare system kick into place. Do you know what the Republicans are doing on that day? They are announcing their contract with America. This is not a coincidence, it is an example of how people that are really good at getting their message out play the game.

I am assuming that the last few sentences are written by the poster, so let me throw this one back at the poster.... What HAS the Obama administration done to get the message out on any of their major accomplishments?

[TomCADem]

4. I Don't See How You Can Give Republicans & Corporate Media A Free Pass On Lies. Fox News...

I love this corporate media narrative that some magical PR strategy would cause the corporate media to suddenly start calling out Republican lies. Do you seriously think that Fox News will start to play it straight? Perhaps you really believe that Freedom Works is a grass roots organization? Maybe you think that the millions being spent by the Chamber of Commerce has no effect?

Also, are you also blaming the left for failing to come up with a Koch-like sugar daddy to bankroll millions in anti-right wing ads?

"What HAS the Obama administration done to get the message out on any of their major accomplishments?"

Are you serious?

The answer is an incredible amount of work and effort that result in the passage of comprehensive health care reform after many presidents before him failed.

Websites, town halls, the Health Care summit, etc. Even this week, he is commemorating the anniversary of HRC's passage.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/09/obama-to-re-visit-an-old-issue-health-care/1

Of course, will the media cover it, or will they focus on the idiot screaming his head off with a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache.

The corporate media narrative blames the left and Democrats for their failures, and excuses the billions spent to support corporate interests. Sadly, many folks buy into this, and give Republicans a free pass.

<>

[TheEuclideanOne]

8. You speak of these organizations like they popped up overnight

They have been there from the very beginning and in the case of some of these organizations well before. No, Fox will not play it straight and EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT. Freedowm Works not a grass roots organization and EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT. The Chamber of Commerce has a hugely detrimental effect and EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT. Yes, the Kock brothers are bankrolling millions into spreading disinformation and WE ARE DOING NOTHING TO COUNTER IT.

My point is that if you know that all of these organizations exist and do not try EXTRA FUCKING HARD to counter them, then you have nobody to blame but yourself. Great, Obama is commemorating the Anni-Fucking-versary of the health care passage. What about getting the message out between the passage and the anniversary?

This is not a story by the corporate media as you claim. It is the truth and it hurts right about now, doesn't it. It sure as hell does. Why are we failing to get the message out? Why? The answer is simple, just look at all of the reasons that you listed where you were trying to make your case, but instead made my case, and you will have your answer.

[Blue_Tires]

25. That chart makes me sad...

Telecom act of '96 was really the final nail...

[Bluenorthwest]

3. I know the media sucks

But when one is willingly in a media heavy feild, blaming the media is like a hitter blaming his bat. The media is a tool, and it has a known nature. Insisting that the reason one fails is because a dog is not a cat is just not a good argument, even if there is a grain of truth to it. The amount of money spent by those who claim to be experts in communications is staggering. They should be able to get the story told, it is that simple. The sun was in my eyes. I was told there would be no math. The ref hates me.

[TomCADem]

5. Money Talks And Our Media Is Funded By Big Money - Its A Corporate Bias...

Big media is not going to bite the hand that feeds it.

<>

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Yeah I know. It is still a lousy excuse to foist.

Because the media is part and parcel of what politicians have to do. If they can not cope with it, they need to stand down, because others could do better, with the same damn media. That is the point. I know all about the media, and I see the Democratic Party failing to use it properly. It is what it is, you use what it is. You do not need the media to 'bite the hand that feeds it'. The media never did that. They have always been self serving. They are and always have been, for profit businesses. That is news like talking movies are news. News like a Hearst headline.
Fact is, some are better at it than others, and the current communications people suck for many very specific reasons. It is not the fault of the bat. Would that it were.

[TomCADem]

10. Reality Is An Excuse? Are You Going To Blame Howard Dean For Not...

...being featured on Sunday News shows with same frequency as Newt Gingrich?

"I see the Democratic Party failing to use it properly."

Look at Fox News. It is employing Karl Rove, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin, and they spearheaded the defeat of "establishment" Republicans. Who is being used?

We are becoming the next Italy whose Prime Minister, Silvio Bescoloni, is a media mogul. That's right. The corproate media is not a tool for the Democrats or the Republicans. Rather, the question is which political party is going to be a tool for Big Media and its corporate sponsors.

Do you think that some PR magic is going to cause corporations to act against their own self-interest? The answer is no. With the concentration of media ownership, the media is now going to push its own agenda, and if you want to push a progressive message, you simply are not going to get the air time.

[savalez]

6. There's a copy and summary of it on the web. Are these people really that lazy?

[TomCADem]

11. Why Should They Distrust The Nightly News?

...particularly when you change the channel and you hear the same talking points and media narrative. With media consolidation, you have an illusion of a diverse media even though most outlets are controlled by only five media conglomorates. Its the illusion of choice and objectivity.

[PSPS]

9. What a load. The media (AP) reporting that people are uninformed. Gee, thanks media!

It's not news that Obama isn't up to his job. But it's sardonically amusing that the AP is blaming Obama for AP's (and the rest of the corporate media's) own shortcomings in keeping the public informed with the facts.

But all the media is rolling in advertising cash from big pharma and the health insurance racket, so they let them control their content. What we get is the media's tired he-said she-said with one side (the republicans) just making stuff up ("death panels") and its being represented as having equal merit as another person stating facts.

[Francesca9]

12. Many Americans still don't know what's in new health law

Source: MSNBC

Confusion remains over 'death panels'

Many who wanted the health care system to be overhauled don't realize that some provisions they cared about actually did make it in. And about a quarter of supporters don't understand that something hardly anyone wanted didn't make it: They mistakenly say the law will set up panels of bureaucrats to make decisions about people's care — what critics labeled "death panels."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39294608/ns/health-health_care/

---

Death Panels? What the ....

[sabrina 1]

13. It doesn't matter what's in it. The Insurance Industry got a windfall

and they know all the loopholes since they wrote the bill. Now they are deciding to not cover children at all. Did Congress not realize that these ghouls would find a way to keep their profits?



They need to be removed from our healthcare system completely, and the sooner the better. They are criminals, corrupt and do not care about people at all. I cannot believe the lost opportunity to get rid of them when the country was so behind a National Healthcare system. So sad.

[babylonsister]

14. Baloney. Nice try. nt

[bread_and_roses]

20. Balony? Really? Please tell us how taking our tax $$ and giving them to

the Vampire insurance companies does not translate into a "windfall?"

It continues to amaze me that people around here speak of these subsidies as if they were a good thing - the people's money, going to Insurance Cos not to health CARE - people's $$ that could actually provide care ... it's unbelievable.

[sabrina 1]

27. Thank you. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Which is why

we are where we are. There are far too many people willing to allow their party leaders off the hook for things they would have been screaming about had it been the other party. That is a problem that needs to be solved imho.

[subterranean]

16. It's not that they won't cover children at all...

they are just discontinuing sales of child-only policies. Children can still get coverage under their parents' plan, although that may cost more. Regardless, I think this demonstrates, as if we didn't know, that the insurers intend to exploit every loophole they possibly can.

[sabrina 1]

28. Of course the will and it's outrageous that this point which was made over and

over again before this bill passed, was denied and ignored for political reasons.

[TomCADem]

15. Could It Be Because Most Of The Media Is Controlled By Only Five Conglomorates?

<>

<>

[TheEuclideanOne]

29. I will reiterate my previous point.

Look at the dates of when it hits "5". That has been the system since 2004, it didn't just happen last year. If the Democrats are not ready to fight in an environment that is already in place, then the only thing they have is apologists like yourself taking comfort in a bunch of excuses..... "Poor us.... those big bad Republican have all of these resources and we have nothing.... nothing we can do...waaahhhh". On top of that they dismantled Dean's 50 state strategy, did not give him a position in the administration and threw Acorn under the bus. Face it, Democrats try extra hard to lose. Nobody said it was easy, but the Democratic administration is getting exactly what they deserve. It is a simple case of cause and effect. And you know what? Unless things change, there is no reason to expect anything different in the upcoming years either. I really hope that the Democratic party grows a pair... and soon.

[elleng]

17. MSNBC asks this question.

Shouldn't we tell them WHY? Maybe because NBC HAS NOT PUT THE FACTS OUT???

[TomCADem]

19. The Corporate Media Covers Health Care Like A Game - No Focus On Subtance...

...Remember Fox News' "interview" of President Obama where they repeatedly interrupted efforts by the President Obama to talk about the substance of Health Care Reform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URJUSlfTgGU

[Francesca9]

21. Does the media understand health care?

There may be a few who do, but I doubt that many in the media know much about what passed.

There are more than 50 new federal agencies, and who here can name one of these and what it does?

OK, now name them all and tell us what they do?

[Francesca9]

18. Stuck - with no help from Democrats or Republicans

If the Republicans win - what then? The worst of both systems forever?

[bread_and_roses]

22. I heard Pelosie trying to message health care "reform" on NPR yesterday

She was articulate, informed, and relentlessly on message. And what was the message? That if the Vampire Insurance Cos raise their rates "irresponsibly" (or maybe the word she used was "frivolously" - whatever, it was a "to be interpreted" descriptor - nothing hard, nothing you could wrap your hands around and use as a counter-weight to fear-mongering) they "risk" being denied a chance to participate in the "exchanges" four years or so from now.

Now, the holes in that are so huge I'm sure I don't have to walk anyone through them. But one thing it clearly is not - a "winning" message. Let me give you an example of a winning message: "No more insurance forms!" "One card, no paperwork." "When you're sick you can go to the doctor." Simple. Clear. Comprehensible. One that could have applied to a true Public Option, the compromise on Single Payer that most of us - despite being then and now accused of being pie-in-the-sky pony wanters accepted.

They can't send a clear message on health care "reform" because for one, it is too arcane, too complicated, too full of holes and two, because people are not stupid. We still know people with no care. We hear every day about rates being raised. People know that "no lifetime caps" won't mean squat if we can't afford "insurance." And those of us who've actually looked at the "subsidy" rates know they will still leave insurance unaffordable for most.

And there is no way to sell a mandate to buy insurance for an up-front cost to be partially reimbursed later - maybe - with an inadequate "subsidy" that will make people like it. None.

[bread_and_roses]

23. Not to mention the best one: "No more bills!"

Now, that's a winning message. "If you have the public option, you have one card, no bills." Please tell me that even the most die-hard tea bagger would not have a moment's pause on that - a tiny crack in the certitude of "evil big gub't"" - a tiny crack that might allow a little light in for other ideas.

But no - we get the articulate Pelosi telling us that if Vampires take "too much blood" they "may" not be "eligible" to drink THIS pool of blood - four years from now - eh? wot?

If the "reform" was real "reform" they're would be no problem on the message.

[zogofzorkon]

24. Because Americans are muddle minded is why we have this law instead

of single payer. They got it backwards again.

[area51]

26. +1

The propaganda in this country, along with brainwashing, is amazing. Nazis think nothing of single-payer police, fire departments, schools, libraries, roads, garbage pickup, etc. but are horrified at the idea of single-payer health care, even though it'd give them freedom we can only dream of in the states.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, and bankrupts people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."