Reuters Health Care Poll: Most Americans Would Pay Higher Taxes For Reform

Contrary to conventional wisdom, most Americans would pay higher taxes to fund health care reform, according to a new Reuters poll.

Sixty-three percent of respondents told the pollster they were willing to pay more for reform, even though most were skeptical that the government would deliver.

"There's skepticism that the government can deliver value," said Gary Perkins, Thomson Reuters' chief research officer for health care and science.

"But underlying this is a fairly strong belief that people are entitled to the best healthcare," Perkins added. "This is a value statement: that people are entitled not just to good but to the best healthcare. And people are willing to pay for it."

While more Democrats were amenable to the idea of paying more for effective reform, overall the willingness cut across party lines. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats willing to accept higher taxes, compared to 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans.

A Kaiser poll released on Tuesday found that support for health care reform has increased since September. However, the poll also found that Americans didn't think they had enough of a voice in the debate. Seventy-one percent of respondents said that Congress was paying too little attention to what people like them were saying.

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Comments

[chulanow]

05:15 PM on 10/04/2009

I would gladly pay for true Health Care Reform......However, that is NOT what we're getting. Therefore, I don't support the current plan/s being discussed.

What happened to having the same health care Congress has? Why can't we have that?

Why can't we buy Insurance across state lines, which would reduce the cost of insurance?

Why can't we regulate the Pharmaceutical companies and reduce the cost of prescriptions?

The current plan being discussed is weak and as a Democrat I cannot support it, just for the sake of saying we have a plan. Republicans and Democrats need to stop thinking of their own political careers and do the right thing.

Americans want the SAME plan Congress has......that is what the President promised during his campaign and that is what we are waiting for and deserve.

[Chip W]

12:02 AM on 10/02/2009

Single payer: Replace health insurance premiums with taxes.
So simple, but for some reason we've got to preserve those health insurance companies.

[fshrmn]

07:51 AM on 10/01/2009

How many Americans call or email their US representatives and senators? It is so easy to voice your wants and desires and criticism to them. I do it on every issue that is important to me. This is the first step in becoming part of the process. You can contact them everyday if you wish. They work for you and don't let them off the hook.

And it helps to thank them if they vote the way you want them to. If they vote otherwise tell them how you feel about that too. Maybe they just lost your vote next time around.

[Oakland]

05:50 AM on 10/01/2009

Only if it was real reform. That would be medicare for all, everybody in and everybody pays something. The rest to be paid for with federal taxes. If its any of the corporate welfare programs currently on the table in the house and in the senate, not a damned dime of my money am I willing to pay.

[Grim Truth]

05:27 AM on 10/01/2009

People willing to pay more for health care reform isn't exactly a revelation. What HP snipped out off the top is the part that shows that people don't want Obama's particular agenda.

"However, only 35 percent of those surveyed said President Barack Obama's reform agenda and the debate in Congress will lead to better health service, while 41 percent said they would expect it to lead to lower costs."

[ClevelandTom]

11:35 AM on 10/04/2009

Virtually everyone agrees that healthcare is broken and costs too much. A vast majority of Americans believe everyoneshould have access to healthcare regardless of their medical condition or ability to pay. And most people are willing to pay for that through taxes.

Simple logic reveals that government whether you like it not, is the ONLY entity that can change the trajectory of health care availability and its cost in this country. Certainly private insurers can't do it and wouldn't do it even if it could.

[ChelseaC]

02:31 AM on 10/01/2009

I would too. I would LOVE TO PAY TAXES INSTEAD OF MONTHLY PREMIUMS TO THE INSURANCE CABAL!
If I could have Medicare, I'd drop my BCBS like a hot potato. They have ripped me off and denied some of my care for too long and they are not the only insurance company I have had the displeasure of dealing with--I had four others--all duds.

[Grim Truth]

05:29 AM on 10/01/2009

Sending money from one set of scammers to another isn't exactly a good solution.

[tmc553]

02:24 AM on 10/01/2009

With a public option any higher taxes would still be far less than the premiums that are currently paid, not to mention the premium increases to come. To think that health insurance is going to be free is absurd. What needs to be decided is whether the money we spend for health care insurance goes towards actual health care or into the profits of the insurance industry. To any intelligent, thinking adult this is a no brainer. But intelligence and thinking seem to be beyond the capability of the GOP.

[ChelseaC]

02:35 AM on 10/01/2009

I would only pay higher taxes for single payer--NOT for subsidies given to the insurance cabal--no how, no way.

[Philclock]

02:17 AM on 10/01/2009

Not this American...and if I have representation, then I won't have taxation.

[Lori Bowles]

01:05 AM on 10/01/2009

This might have already been asked, but ....
The Public Option Health Care Plan will in part be paid for by an increase in tax's by the top 1% right?
Thats why we are going after the Swiss accounts.

[Rayme]

12:27 AM on 10/01/2009

This is a lie, no one wants to pay more in taxes. I already get health insurance through my work, I pay a $20 copay fee which is a lot, if I were to go to the doctor 4 times a year that's $80.00, then my insurance only covers 80% of all costs. Hospitals, labs and doctors jack up the price of everything in order to cover those who do not pay, so I end up paying a ridiculous amount for any services I receive. Then the Price of the prescription medicine is also insane. As I got older, I realized that I could afford to be sick, so I turned to alternative medicine, eating my fruits and vegetables and exercise. I have not gotten sick since. So why should people like me who figured out how to be healthy want to pay for all the idiots who think that doctors are gods. Seriously, 750,000 Americans die from Heart Disease, 685,000 Americans die from cancer and 250,000 Americans die from prescription drugs each Year. Western Modern Medicine didn't help these people, it's a Scam.

[carsntrucks]

11:02 PM on 09/30/2009

First of all, I question the validity of this poll, and second, most Americans also voted for someone who made numerous promises that he wouldn't raise taxes for them. He proposed a sort of soak the rich model that people just went for. Most Americans disliked Bush for only cutting taxes for the rich. I wonder how Most Americans would've voted had Obama said he wanted to soak the middle class in taxes in order to fund health care reform.

[oldngrumpy]

11:18 PM on 09/30/2009

Bush cut taxes on the top earners and made everyone else pay for his war, and he was elected (?) twice. Of course, he didn't campaign on running a tab with the Chinese so it was hard to predict just how lousy he would be at the economy.

Obama campaigned to the middle class, where there are a lot of swing voters and moderates. He has been the one to set the standard for no tax increases for anyone below $250k and not to increase the deficit with health care reform. Both are noble goals, but neither is a stamped in stone if they would interfere with getting health care under control.

Republicans love to speak of taxes in isolation to all other costs in society, but that is disingenuous. If a dollar in tax saves two dollars in cost to society in another area then to not enact the tax because of some Neanderthal ideology would be stupid, at best.

[Rhia]

01:02 AM on 10/01/2009

I don't have any problems with my tax being raised as long as it is reasonable. I'd rather pay more for my society's well-being rather than fund a pointless war.

[Alabama John]

09:59 PM on 09/30/2009

Butcher Medicine Bailout ---- Circus Side-show Extravaganza

ACT ONE

Obama:
Does everyone have their script? The debate over Public Option starts today, is everyone rehearsed and ready to go?

Joe Wilson:
Maybe my yelling out, “You lie” was overdone. Being down so low in the polls now, anyway why do I have to play the heavy?

Obama:
Don’t worry, lobbyists will have an executive opening for you in industry. But you may not lose your election, for I’m set to take all the heat for the bailout trillions as both the defense and medical industries want Republicans running the White House and Congress next term. Much privatizing of government coming up.

Olympia Snowe:
Most all my voters back home are conservative, the part your asking me to play is going to cost much loss of support.

Obama:
Read the final act. You sign on to the Public Option just before the last vote in the Senate, by then we will have it most conservative in effect and a dozen Republicans have been ordered by the lobbyists to also vote in favor of it.

Max Baucus:
Yes, and we have many heated debates planned out, much burning of the voters emotions to blind their minds.

[Phoenixfire089]

08:42 PM on 09/30/2009

The most basic building block of "quality of life" is health. Employers have a stake in making sure employees are and remain healthy but the burden of providing the resources to ensure that should not reside with them. Our government provides a multitude of services that help make us safer and enhance the quality of our lives, but yet not the one that has the greatest impact. It's an extremely unwise decision to leave such an important part of our lives to those whose prime aim is to make a profit. We went from talking about universal health care to pretty much anything else. Let's get back to that idea. I wouldn't mind paying higher taxes at all if it means I don't ever have to fight with an insurance company again. Plus, many of us already pay for health insurance so technically, if that payment no longer existed, the amount that taxes would be raised likely would not exceed the amount we already pay to insurance companies making a profit from us.

[oldngrumpy]

09:41 PM on 09/30/2009

What makes you think that the Democrat's public option would be free or that private insurance would "go away"?

[Alabama John]

10:08 PM on 09/30/2009

If a democrate Public Option was well regulated by a democratic government, then it surely would cost less then private health insurance and reduce taxes.

But our capitalist government is passing a capitalist Public Option that will have no regulation and allow capitalist butcher medicine to maximize profit.

[Phoenixfire089]

05:52 PM on 10/02/2009

I didn't say that I thought it would be free, but given that we are already paying health insurance to companies that make a profit, it would stand to reason that the costs would not be as great as some people make them out to be if the government did not make a profit on it. Private insurance wouldn't go away; people in nations like Canada and Britain, with universal health care systems, still choose to pay for their own private insurance which of course would require the continued existence of those companies.

[Alabama John]

08:14 PM on 09/30/2009

WHAT WE DESERVE FROM GOVERNMENT

Now if we have a capitalist government, then we all deserve to be rich and are guaranteed the unregulated freedom to compete for excessive wealth.

Whereas, if we have democratic equality, then we are guaranteed the well regulated freedom to not have to compete, to not have to be a slave to the next man more intelligence, and in so doing to have equality, as in equal wealth.

[Pquilson]

08:45 PM on 09/30/2009

If people are guaranteed equal wealth, why would they work and achieve? This country is supposed to offer equal opportuntity, not equal outcome.

[Alabama John]

09:17 PM on 09/30/2009

Your assumption that we have “equal opportunity” is based on a lie, namely, “All men are created equal...”

For we are all given a different level of intelligence as a test, to see if we pass our excessive wealth down to those less intelligent where it belongs.

CAPITALISM

(1) Equal opportunity to compete for excessive wealth, unless your among my slow and careful thinking laboring class.

(2) Equal opportunity to be a slave to the next man more intelligent

(3) Equal opportunity to enslave the next man less intelligent

DEMOCRACY

(A) Equal right to not have to compete and in so doing have equality, as in equal healthcare and equal access to power.

(B) Equal right to not be a slave to those with a greater ability to achieve.

(C) Freedom from the fake morality that excessive wealth is a gift from God.

[oldngrumpy]

09:45 PM on 09/30/2009

I think we long ago agreed that the penalty for losing at your little game of capitalism shouldn't be death. Somewhere in the last 30 years the conservative movement has reanimated that penalty through various welfare and bankruptcy "reforms". I refuse to play your game of capitalism if you're going to take it so seriously. People might get hurt.

[IndependentMeans]

07:54 PM on 09/30/2009

Too bad "Americans" are not in this equation. Just Fox News, insurance companies and drug companies.