(my apologies if this has already been posted, did a search and didn't see it)
Y'all ever seen the movie "The Sandlot" where the kid in the end says, "We've been going about this all wrong..." Well friends, "We've been going about this all wrong" I think we're over-simplifying things.
Poll: Most can't define 'public option'
While nearly eight out of 10 Americans say they favor a "public option" insurance plan in national health care reform proposals now before Congress, fewer than four out of 10 can correctly define what a public option means, a new poll underwritten by AARP shows.
Those and other poll findings could be bad news for President Barack Obama, who faces possible defeat of most or all of one of his administration's highest-priority goals — health care reform — and growing displeasure from independent voters who helped elect him.
The new polling — done by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates — surveyed 1,000 Democrats, Republicans and independents nationwide earlier this month.
While the survey results suggest strong agreement among Americans that health care delivery and payment must change, there's much less agreement on whether the problem calls for coughing up higher taxes or insurance premiums.
The reason? It's the economy, Cook said.
Almost 65 percent oppose increasing taxes to pay for covering the more than 46 million Americans who are estimated to be without coverage of any kind, even though on other questions a majority said they believed all people should be covered. And 73 percent said they are unwilling to see private health insurance premiums rise to cover those costs.
The conflict highlights one of the essential reasons Obama and members of Congress who support reform are having a tough time selling it to the American public: the economy has everybody worried.
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2009/08/24/daily73.html Folks are misinformed and confused.
And when you combine that with this....
More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a "choice" between a government-run health care insurance option and private coverage, according to a public opinion poll released on Thursday.
A new study by SurveyUSA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.
But the numbers tell another story, as well.
Earlier in the week, after pollsters for NBC dropped the word "choice" from their question on a public option, they found that only 43 percent of the public were in favor of "creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/new-poll-77-percent-suppo_n_264375.html... an article which we DID discuss, although most everyone missed the point.
It's not that 77% of those polled support the public option the way you and I do .... sure, some of them do, 40 - 50%, but a big chunk of those polled latched onto the word "choice" and read that as having a choice between what they have now and what the "Federal Government" was throwing together. Newsflash "Federal Government" is a SCARY phrase to a lot of folks. I would imgaine that a large chunk of that 77% answered that question "yes" because they understood it to mean a "choice" from whatever the "Federal Government" was trying to "cram down their throats."
My point is, I doubt there is this huge national mandate like we are claiming. Now, dont get me wrong, I'm for a public option even if only 10% of those polled supported it, it's the principle of the matter.
But we keep acting like things are so simple and they're not. Ask your friends who are not into politics simply say "do you support a public option" and I bet very few would understand what you're asking them. And even if you try to explain it, they'll balk saying "it's going to cost more more!" I know this, because I've tried it time and time again. It's only when you explain to them how private insurance premiums are going up and will continue to do so (ask them how often their preimiums have gone up in the last five years, then ask them how many pay raises they've received) that their wheels start turning.
Yes we need to keep pressing the President and reminding him of all the things he's known for years (his mother DIED fighting insurance companies, do you think this is not PERSONAL for him???!) and yes we've got to keep writing Congress and demanding they do their part ..... but we also have to stop acting like the American public is clamoring an optional, government-run health care plan. The American public is skeptical, confused, uneducated and cynical.
It's a bad combination.
Now, who's fault that is is for another OP. :)
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