AARP Poll: Public Option Confusing for Americans
AARP Poll: Public Option Confusing for Americans
Aug. 26, 2009 – Despite a large majority indicating support for a “public option” for health care, most people don’t know what a public option actually entails, according to the AARP.
AARP officials recently commissioned a new study to assess American’s attitudes toward a public health care option, such as proposed by President Barack Obama and many federal lawmakers. But while about 8 in 10 people polled said they favor creating a public health care option, less than 4 in 10 actually could accurately define what a public health care option means.
Despite the apparent strong consensus for health care reform among Americans surveyed, there was very little agreement in how to fund potential changes.
Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed — 65 percent — said they oppose increasing taxes to provide health care coverage for the estimated 46 million Americans and illegal immigrants lacking health insurance coverage. Although generally opposed to paying higher taxes to expand health care coverage, some 73 percent of those polled said they also are unwilling to pay higher private health insurance premiums to cover the cost of expanding coverage to uninsured Americans and illegal immigrants.
The study was conducted recently by researchers Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates and presented during a recent AARP event in Denver. The poll earlier this month queried 1,000 voters identifying themselves as independents, Republicans and Democrats, and political columnist Charlie Cook offered opinions on what the polling data might mean.
The primary conclusion Cook drew from polling results is that Americans are highly wary of economic costs tied to health care reform at a time when the nation is facing one of its most challenging times since the Great Depression. And concerns about the economy could prove fatal to President Barack Obama’s ambitious plans for reforming the nation’s health care system.
Cook publishes the non-partisan newsletter, the Cook Political Report, to which many politicians and political pundits subscribe. He says Obama is in danger of losing critical support of independent voters who proved the difference in his successful run for the White House. But losing the support of independents not only jeopardizes the President’s policy goals, it could prove extremely costly during the midterm and 2012 presidential elections.
Cook also told the Denver audience the AARP polling data could prove to be worse for Democrats now than in 1993, when President Bill Clinton attempted a similarly massive retooling of the nation’s health care system. But instead of tackling the issue himself, Cook says President Obama is relying on his Congressional allies to come up with a solution.
The problem with that approach, according to Cook, is that Americans generally don’t trust Congress.
“President Obama made the mistake of outsourcing major public policy to an institution that doesn’t have a lot of credibility — Congress,” Cook said, adding that Obama and Democrats very well may face defeat on the health care issue and possibly in upcoming elections given the current state of the economy and highly tense debates over health care reform.
Comments
Leave a Reply