Don't Let CNN's Poll Trick You
Posted on July 1st, 2009 by Alex Thurston in Congress Watch
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If all questions were created equal, you might think that Americans were badly divided on health care reform. According to CNN, only "a bare majority of Americans support President Obama's health care plan."
But when pollsters ask Americans point blank if they want a strong public health insurance plan option as part of health reform, a large - not a "bare" - majority of us say yes.
Just today, Quinnipiac released polling results that showed that support was as high as ever. When Quinnipiac asked, "Do you support or oppose giving people the option of being covered by a government health insurance plan that would compete with private plans?" 69% said they support the public option.
Need more? When the Washington Post and ABC asked, "Would you support or oppose having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans?" 62% said they support the idea.
And when the Wall Street Journal and NBC asked, "In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance––extremely important, quite important, not that important, or not at all important?" 76% said it was extremely or quite important (.pdf).
A variety of other polls, asking similar questions, have found similar levels of support for the public option.
So what's the deal with CNN? Their poll, it turns out, asks a very different question, which is why it gets a different answer. When CNN asked, "From everything you have heard or read so far, do you favor or oppose Barack Obama's plan to reform health care?" 51% said they supported it, while 45% said they opposed it. Rasmussen, asking roughly the same question, gets a similar answer: 50% say they support "Barack Obama's plan," while 45% say they oppose it.
I'm no pollster, but I'm not surprised that levels of support change based on whether the pollster explains the policy they are asking about or simply associates it with a political figure.
It's more valuable to ask about attitudes toward specific policies. President Obama will not single-handedly determine the shape of health reform. Congress is the body that will take primary responsibility for drafting, amending, and ultimately passing legislation. Many individuals - Edward Kennedy, Max Baucus, Christopher Dodd, and Nancy Pelosi, to name a few - will have a profound impact on the final bill. That's why we need to know how Americans feel about the proposals being made, not the people who propose them.
I am concerned that media narratives about public opinion will become distorted as a result of polls like CNN's, and that observers - or ordinary Americans - will look at polls and say, "Well, we see 76% support for the public option here, but only 50% there. So who knows what Americans really want?"
But I am even more concerned that opponents of health reform will exploit confusion over polls to alarm members of Congress and weaken legislation. "Look at how divided Americans are over the public option," a crafty spinmeister might say. "The President's honeymoon is over, and support for health reform is dropping." If opponents of reform succeed in tying the issue to a person (see "Hillarycare"), they've laid the groundwork for some nasty attacks on reform proposals.
Americans tend to balk at the idea that one powerful individual could reorganize the health system in our country. That's why we all have to keep in mind that the reform proposals on the table have been shaped and supported by many qualified leaders and thinkers, from the President to the Democratic leadership in Congress to intellectuals like Jacob Hacker and analysts in a broad array of major think tanks like the Center for American Progress, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Campaign for America's Future.
The public option is a good proposal, and a necessary one, and that's why Americans support it when you explain it to them in a straightforward manner. So don't let polls that ask different questions trick you into thinking the forces of reform are losing ground. On the contrary, we're gaining steam - and Congress will pay attention.
Our senators and reps have a credibility problem with health care, They are all on a government run tax payer funded health care program, it has replaced, hips, knees, treated cancer and heart problems. . If it is good enough for them why is it not good enough for us. We should demand their health care program be doped until the are willing to give us the people who gave it to them the same. How is it the government is not competent enough to expand the same health care they have to everyone but they are competent enough to run the country? Government health care is good enough for thees senators but not for you they don't support a public option. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC)
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)
How could anyone know what Obama's plan is? I doubt that even he does.
Another example of single payer in action:
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141048/we_already_have_a_popular_single-payer_health_care_system_–_it%27s_for_active_military_and_veterans/
The CNN poll numbers aren't that hard to understand. The vast majority of Americans support Health Care for all, full access for everyone. That can ONLY be provided by a Single Payer Plan such as HR 676. It is no surprise that a bare majority support Obama's watered down plan which will not provide care for all, will be a costly bureauctratic nightmare, and will probably play into the hands of the Medical/Industrial complex and discredit national healthcare as ineffective and expensive.
This so called public option will include mandates, premiums and copays. With these it cannot be the solution. Therfore it does not deserve the support shown for a true universal plan and does not get it. This something hard to get across at times. The PEOPLE are out in front of both political parties on this. The political parties (and the media) are both answering to the insurance industry, the medical industrial complex, rather than the people. Democrats are not getting 2/3 of insurance industry largesse. Connect the dots.
The right and the Med/Ind complex do not oppose Single Payer because it will be bureaucratic, ineffective, innefficient, costly, or just won't work. They oppose it because they are correctly very afraid that it WILL work and improve our healthcare and save money. Their ideology cannot stomach another popular and successful government program, that will deliver what the Americn people really want and need. Support real medical care reform. This is not a radical or "socialist" position. It was proposed by President Woodrow Wilson circa 1919 and again by Presidemt Truman in 1948. These, and attempts since then have been beaten back by the Med/Ind complex repeatedly.
Support Single Payer HR 676 and S 2031. Not half-measures that are doomed to failure.
It's boils down to the simple fact that the Americn people cannot trust the President and those in Congress that support the passage of a universal or national health care program that it will function as they project. The cost alone is reason enough to see it not pass. Once passed, the government will spend whatever additional tax payers' dollars necessary to try and make it work. We're hearing that some in Congress do not fully know what's in the proposed legislation and exactly how it will work. The Americn people should be extremely alarmed at the prospect that the government will end up deeply involved in this aspect of our lives. The medical community and the health insurance companies need to accept the fact that reform is needed and commit to address those areas of our health care system that will bring down costs and insure that every American (not illegals) have access to affordable insurance. dlee
Yes the people don't trust the President they don't trust politicians either. So why for the life of me are there people yes mainly us democrats willing to trust these people when they show us Nancy her self has said SHE will get this done the time for strong arm is not now not making people eat this is crazy. If someone who wants health care they can get it even if their self employed there are many was to do this i've done it for 20 years but for me to pay for someone to lazy to research is crazy i;m not a college grad i've worked hard for what i have i don't want to see health care go the way of social security or unemployment whats next will they do my plumbing will there be national coverage for that. It looks like the party i'm in thinks no one take care of their self and they know whats right for me better than me and will make America safe from it self to think the union i'm in supported this man makes me sick well at least i'll be covered.