Poll: Potential Health Care Reform Costs Making Voters Wary
Nov. 16, 2009 – By a narrow margin, the percentage of Americans recently polled who support current health care plans being assessed in Congress is less than those opposed to health care reform efforts with potential cost generally being the tipping point.
Some 43 percent of those participating in a recent Associated Press poll indicated they oppose current health care reform efforts while 41 percent indicated support. Some 15 percent of respondents indicated no preference.
Factoring in an about 3 percent error margin, poll results indicate no statistically significant difference between those supporting and those opposed. But lawmakers at-risk of losing their seats in the 2010 elections won’t be emboldened by such results clearly indicating no strong amount of support or a “mandate” for federal health care reform efforts.
A month ago, the Associated Press poll showed an equal 40-40 split among those supporting and those opposing health care reform plans. The slight shift toward pessimism suggests current Congressional efforts do not resonate well among poll participants, and potential cost is their primary concern.
Current legislative proposals would prevent health insurance companies from refusing to insure people due to pre-existing medical conditions, and some 82 percent of those polled in October by the Pew Research Center support requiring health insurers cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.
But when informed their health insurance premiums likely would rise to cover the added costs of providing health insurance coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, support for current health care reform proposals declined sharply, with only 43 percent of those participating in the Associated Press poll saying they still would support reform efforts while 31 percent said they would oppose them due to the higher cost.
Adding to potential health insurance costs increases is a legislative proposal limiting the amount health insurers can charge the elderly for coverage. Instead, health insurers would have to increase rates charged to a group already comprising a large percentage of the uninsured – healthy people in their 20s.
Current measures in the U.S. House and Senate also require all Americans purchase health insurance coverage or obtain it through an employer or government program. Low-income people and families with mid-level incomes would have access to state and federal subsidies to help pay for health care, if approved and signed into law, which also would increase health care costs for most of the more than 80 percent of U.S. citizens with health insurance coverage, according to the Associated Press.
Stanford University researchers conducted the telephone poll of 1,502 adults from Oct. 29 to Nov. 8 and has a margin of error of 2.5 percent.
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