American Public Divided On Health Care Reform (POLL)

The American public remains evenly divided on whether President Obama's health care plan should be passed, according to the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll.

Forty-six percent of all respondents came out in favor of passing the bill, with 45 percent against it.

But even for those who voiced their support for the legislation, the President's plan is less than ideal. Only 36 percent of all poll participants thought the plan was a "good idea".

Poll participants, however, sent an unambiguous message to Congress. Only 17 percent approved of the job lawmakers on Capitol Hill are currently doing. Fifty percent of all respondents said that, given the option, they would vote out every member of Congress, including their own representative.

Meanwhile, President Obama's job approval ratings remain in middling territory, with 48 percent in favor of his performance on the job, down from 50 percent in January.

The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted from March 11 to March 14 and has a 3 percentage point margin of error.

Comments

[hellboundtrain]

11:39 AM on 03/18/2010

Americans divided? That's our whey!

[lisaman]

11:32 AM on 03/18/2010

Together we stand, divided we fall. Are we in for a great big fall?

[Dude77007]

11:11 AM on 03/18/2010

The Congressional Democrats and the President have no one to blame but themselves for the mess that this "reform" bill has turned into. Obama should have never taken a hands off approach to this legislation. It let all the disfuncitional Democrats in Congress eat each other alive on TV each day, while the Republicans lied and distorted the facts of this bill for over a year. They should have been on TV each evening countering the lies and misrepresentations but they were too busy fighting amongst themselves. The polls reflect that they have done nothing to get the truth out. But then the bill is now so watered down that it is not reform at all. Now, I believe that the Democrats never intended to pass true insurance reform. They just want the public to think that they tried. They are as bought and paid for as the Republicans are by the insurance industry. If you think that they will do anything different on finance reform, you got to be kidding

[rad21]

11:10 AM on 03/18/2010

wHAT'S NEW?

AMERICANS HAVE ALWAYS WANTED THEIR CAKE ... AND TO EAT IT TOO!

[suzc]

10:57 AM on 03/18/2010

Americans are divided over..... everything.
This is not news.
We have been divided almost down the middle for a decade now.
I fear we are divided mostly by the lies foisted on us by the Govt and the Media,
neither of which seem able to tell the truth for even a heartbeat. (Or to report the facts, either.)

Americans cannot truly be divided over "health care" because nobody knows what is actually being passed. First, nobody can get their head around 2000 pages of Congress-speak! Second, there are at least three bills rolling around. Third, nobody knows what is (or is not) actually being voted on. Four, nobody can have any idea of the unintended consequences, in large part because nobody knows what is actually going to become law!

So: Half of Americans want Govt to be less intrusive, not more intrusive, and they believe this bill will make Govt more intrusive (because that's what they've been told ad nauseum). The other half of Americans, being perhaps more altruistic but less realistic, want universal health care and/or actual insurance reform, as in "cost controls" and "competition," removing the billionaire middlemen, and are hopeful this bill will give them at least some of that. (I'm not sure it will.)

Stupid half-baked headlines, esp born of polls, are as useless as the paper they're not written on!

IMHO, as we used to say....

[WSAY]

10:39 AM on 03/18/2010

Anyone interested in health care and insurance in this country should take a look at this:

http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/SPECIAL-REPORT-Insurer-targeted-HIV-patients-to-drop-coverage-2010-03-17T174033Z

Fortis canceled Mitchell's health insurance based on a single erroneous note from a nurse in his medical records that indicated that he might have been diagnosed prior to his obtaining his insurance policy. When the company's investigators discovered the note, they ceased further review of Mitchell's records for evidence to the contrary, including the records containing the doctor's diagnosis.

Nettles also suggested that Fortis should have realized the date in the note was incorrect: "Not only did Fortis choose to rely on one false and unreliable snippet of information containing an erroneous date to the exclusion of other information which would have revealed that date to be erroneous, Fortis refused to conduct any further investigation even after it was on notice the evidence which aroused its suspicion to be false," the judge noted.

Fortis "gambled" with Mitchell's life, Nettles wrote.

[Countess]

09:12 AM on 03/18/2010

These national polls should come with a warning label. How many of the people counted as against the health care bill are progressives who object to such a pro-industry bill? What portion of the respondents live in the south? Once you begin to understand the importance of these kind of questions you will begin to have a better idea of where the American people really stand.

[AyeChart]

09:03 AM on 03/18/2010

Is this a deceitful headline or what? Actual poll results:

48 percent of Americans say Obamacare is a bad idea. Just 36 percent support the president's health care reform vision.

[suzc]

10:58 AM on 03/18/2010

And 100% have no idea what Obamacare is.

[Tom Joad]

08:31 AM on 03/18/2010

...those who oppose Health Security for every American don't understand what it is or why it's important. What's wrong with Medicare for everyone? If you want, buy into it, and you should be able to get it.

[Peter007]

10:38 AM on 03/18/2010

Its because the numbers don't add up. Anyone buying into Medicare is doing so because their Medical costs are too high for an insurance company. That means the $500/ month Medicare premium they'd have to pay would not cover the costs Medicare would have to expend on them. It would put Medicare into more financial difficulty. The entire health care issue is about health care costs. Why does it cost $3,000 to visit a Doctor? The health care bill is up for a vote because Medicare is going bankrupt. The other provisions in the bill about covering everyone is window dressing . It's icing on the cake to get the public to support it.

[res8d7ss]

02:18 AM on 03/18/2010

"I've always found that courage comes from remembering that we fight

for something and someone beyond ourselves. It comes from our faith.

And it comes from our commitment to those we love."

— President Obama —

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/joinofasplash/?source=OM_LB_google_ob2-search_pres&gclid=COuQzu67waACFZdM5Qod_CVlZw

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ofasplashfm/



http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/index.php

Both the House and Senate versions of health insurance reform rest upon the following building blocks:

Insurance reforms to protect consumers from insurance company worst-practices – like denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, capping total coverage, and dropping or watering down coverage when you get sick and need it most

Consumer protections that will restrict how much of your premium dollars insurance companies can spend on marketing, profits, and salaries

Creation of a health exchange to increase consumer choice and guarantee coverage

Affordable health options, with subsidies for working families and a hardship waiver

Tax credits to help small businesses afford coverage

Making preventive care completely free – with no co-payments or deductibles

Lowering the cost of health care for our seniors

Improving the quality and extending the life of Medicare

Ensuring that reform is not only fully paid for, but actually significantly reduces the federal deficit

[tbone99]

10:04 AM on 03/18/2010

And best of all -
Massive profits for insurance companies with very little to no actual enforcement of any the above

[Peter007]

10:40 AM on 03/18/2010

You sound like you are selling a car or a cell phone plan. Those are the benefits but what are the costs?

[Rockwell]

01:21 AM on 03/18/2010

The American people don't have a freaking clue what's in the health care bill. They are afraid of it because Fox and the GOP are great and fearmongering.

Democrats need to pass it. The people will see that it doesn't trigger the apolocolypse and in fact may find that they and their neighbors actually benefit. Then Axlerod's political machine needs to get into high gear to remind the American People that the GOP is the party of status quo for the rich and powerful.

That's a message that will resonate and it will be Republican's, not Democrats that have to run from their record this Fall.

[jeff009]

11:29 PM on 03/17/2010

The results of one poll are not very insightful. I like what the folks at BOC did better. See what I mean http://www.barackobamacare.com/politics/obamacare-national-poll-trends/

[hillarysupporter]

12:37 AM on 03/18/2010

Better take a look at Massachusetts' universal healthcare, its similar to Obamacare. Its a disaster.
Their insurance rates will increase 8 - 32% in April;
Average wait for new patients to see doctor is 44 days;
Average family of 4 pays over $13,000/yr; for insurance;
E.R. visits Increasing due to long doctor waits;
56% of doctors are not accepting new patients;
Patients scamming the system, buying insurance only when they need it, then dropping it;
Hospitals filing bankruptcy, etc.
Do we want the rest of the country to be just like this?!

[slavad]

12:55 AM on 03/18/2010

Well put!
i work in healthcare in mass. Masshealth(medicaid), which is the state run healthcare for all, works ok for the patients in that they have access to healthcare. However, many providers, FP and specialists do not accept it for many reasons. One main reason is that the reimbursement is significantly lower than regular insurance. Reimbursement is based or RVU's(relative value units). This is a calculation of value for work done. Reimbursement for medicare (elderly) is around $38 per RVU, Masshealth is lower somewhere around $32. Regular insurance varies but the majority are greater than $45 per. Also, the providers don't like it because Masshealth doesn't cover many prescriptions for therapy, orthopedic braces, rehab,etc. Making it harder to properly threat the conditions that the patients have. It is frustrating.
On the patient side, this narrows the amount, and often times the quality of the care they receive. The wait longer for services, they don't follow through with treatments due to costs. Face it most have Masshealth because they are low on funds.
Massachusetts has a large budget deficit, one main reason is Masshealth. Hospitals are closing(bankrupt), because of the financial cost of low reimbursements. Insurance and medical costs are high because they supplement the financial loss for the under insured. It's mathematics people.

[Elyriaohio]

07:19 AM on 03/18/2010

You can't be successful at anything by killing every idea.

[psamty]

10:53 PM on 03/17/2010

People need to be less afraid of rationing. Health care is a scarce resource, so it cannot be given out freely. Rationing will happen, and it should be faced upfront. There are some treatments that will simply be too expensive to administer.

Elementary economics teaches us that price acts as a ration on a scarce resource. We should remind repubs that it's not a question of whether rationing happens - rationing already happens, it's just a matter of whether it's price rationing or non-price rationing.

[hahaney]

10:59 PM on 03/17/2010

It's already being rationed by insurance companies.

[psamty]

11:02 PM on 03/17/2010

Right, exactly. Currently we have price rationing. A public option would allow us to create a system where we use non-price rationing. Private healthcare will always be superior, but those who cannot afford it will have some care, as opposed to none.

[aflyinyoursoup]

10:22 PM on 03/17/2010

All you have to do is notice that the poll was taken and no doubt heavily skewed by the conservative hacks at that bastion of ultra-conservative knuckleheads...... the WSJ.
Bird Cage Liner!

[jerryatthebeach]

08:43 PM on 03/17/2010

We've been an evenly divided country for a long time but more Americans want this than don't. so, I say, it's done...