Surprising Way Race Colors Attitudes To Health Care Reform

Some opposition to the Obama administration's health care reform law is linked to racial bias, according to a study released by the Greenlining Institute on Tuesday.

But, according to the research, much of this opposition to health care reform is not attributable to racially charged views about President Barack Obama in particular, but, comes from a complex idea called racial resentment.

"The racial bias that I looked at is a construct called racial resentment, it's the idea that the reason why blacks don't get ahead in society is because they don't work hard enough," said Daniel Byrd, research director at the Greenlining Institute. "Obama isn't affecting their attitudes towards the healthcare reform law, it's more about the idea that blacks may be getting something they don't deserve."

According to the report, which analyzed data from the 2008 to 2010 American National Election Survey of opinions and voting habits:

"Whites who like Obama are more supportive of the health care reform when compared to whites who do not like Obama. In contrast, for whites high in racial resentment, Obama is not a factor in their attitudes towards the health care reform law. Instead their attitude towards blacks as a group, specifically the belief that blacks do not work hard, is related to their attitude towards the recently passed health care reform law."

The study found that during the summer of 2010, 44.3% of all Americans backed healthcare reform, 35.8% opposed it and 19.8% had no opinion. There was also a "racial component" to support for the measure, the report found, as 78.6% of African Americans, 52.6% of Latinos and 43.6% of people from other racial backgrounds backed reform, compared with 38.4% of the white people surveyed, according to the study. This could be linked to the fact that, according to the Center for American Progress, black and Latino Americans are less likely to have health insurance when compared to their white counterparts.

Opposition to the health care reform bill has sometimes been racially charged. In 2009, a swastika was painted on a sign outside the Smyrna, Ga., office of representative David Scott, D-Ga., who backed the bill, after a town hall meeting about an unrelated issue became a confrontation over health care reform.

“This kind of hate and racism is bubbling underneath the surface,” Scott told the AJC at the time. “You hear these people say I want my country back, but from whom?” Scott told the paper. “They feel somebody has taken their country. What has happened to demonstrate that? I think it speaks for itself.”

Several other representatives who backed the bill received death threats, according to the AJC:

"Democratic congressman, Brad Miller of North Carolina, has received death threats for his support of health care reform. Two other Democratic congressman, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Frank Kratovil of Maryland, were hanged in effigy by protesters opposed to President Barack Obama's health care reform."

The Obama administration is currently defending healthcare reform against a barrage of challenges after courts in Florida and Virginia ruled against aspects of the legislation.

Comments

[lcole3]

03:07 PM on 03/28/2011

OBAMACARE........is it good for your health?



http://survey.matterofopinion.com/survey.jsp?surveyid=134

[Fussy]

09:11 PM on 03/16/2011

I have read the health care bill. There are more problems with it than I have time to list, but here are a few highlights.
Primary funding comes from a Medicare lock box, which is full of IOU's from the Treasury for money for money already stolen to cover deficit spending in the past. The fact that Medicare would need the money later is ignored. The so called Doc Fix is not considered as a related cost. Extremely high growth in GDP is assumed, far beyond historic norms.
Much of it is not written yet. It will be written later by committees yet to be named. I didn't count the number of blank sections, but it might be 100. Who knows what the committee members might come up with.
There are no features of the bill that appear to have as their goal the control of cost, which is what, in my opinion, should have been the primary focus. Health care at one time was not so expensive, that's why it was often provided at no cost by employers. Why does a 3 hour stay in a hospital and a 20 minute procedure cost over $10,000, as my wife recently had done?
Then of course there is the Constitutional issue, which people on the site probably don't think is a problem. If you think Congress has the authority to compel you to buy insurance, you are logically giving up all your rights and privileges and abdicating all responsibilities.

[sandracoston]

06:06 PM on 04/12/2011

I would have to ask why you think your understanding is correct..and I do not ask this with malice..I to have read many parts and find some very hard to understand ...so I for one believe that in all big pieces of legislation there will no doubt be things that need to be changed and adjusted..I also believe that republicans and democrats should stop using the health care reform bill as a political football because we all know that something had to be done with our healthcare system..so why not come together fix what is wrong keep what is wright..what a concept actually working together to make healthcare better for all not just for some..I am not going to hold my breath..I just wish we had adults in the congress that cared more about the people they represent than keeping their own jobs..who I think especially on the right should be fired for lack of performance..

[Tom Sharon]

07:59 AM on 03/15/2011

We used to say the two biggest lies are “The check is in the mail” and “It won’t hurt a bit.” Now, there is a third biggest lie, which is, “We have the best health care system in the world,” as Bill Clinton and George Bush uttered repeatedly during their respective terms. On the other hand, all of the standard measures of health care quality points to ours as being “the best substandard price-gouging health care system in the world”. We need to find out what's really wrong and why no one wants to fix it. Http://soulfulthought.blogspot.com

[sandracoston]

06:11 PM on 04/12/2011

I think that we have something now to work from if the right would stop all the political grandstanding and get involved..keep what works and get rid of parts that don't...I do think that once this plan is implemented it will bring this country closer to a single payer system...once the insurance companies have to compete with a government option and people choose to opt out of the private insurance and opt in to the government option the insurance companies won't be able to compete and hopefully fade away...this is my hope ..sometimes things just have to happen in an organic way instead of pushed ...

[Supernatoir]

12:14 AM on 03/14/2011

Payment to Blacks for services.......anybody ......U.s.A is in debt to the blacks pay up

[rbrown0501]

09:05 PM on 03/09/2011

Although a racial component may explain some of the resentment toward the health care bill. The actual problem may be that the health care bill was a opportunity to improve the overall health of Americans and the economy. America’s health care system costs at currently over 17% of GDP. Health care costs have risen 8 to 14 percent per year since 2000, making the U.S. system the most expensive health care system in the world, based on health expenditures per capita. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and development the U.S. ranks low among industrialized countries in life expectancy and infant mortality.
So how did the Affordable Health Care for America Act address these problems? The bill did make some improvements to the current system; it did address some access to health care problems by addressing; pre-existing conditons, extending dependent age coverage, created insurance exchanges, expanded Medicaid income eligibility. And according to the CBO the law would save money over 10 years.
But the final law lacks; a public option, repeal of the insurer antitrust exemption. Although 30 million new customers were mandated to be insured, no cost control mandate was applied to the Insurance industry. So on a practical level, the access and costs issues can’t be adequately addressed if rates continue to rise at their current rates and citizens cant afford insurance. So in my opinion the law was a missed opportunity.

Roderick Brown
Atlanta Georgia

[CB5]

01:31 PM on 03/18/2011

Very interesting, R Brown. Anyway possible for us to still seize the opportunity, to revisit putting the cost control mandate back into the equation?? and upgrading to single payer? Just an FYI, my congressman told me that almost half of our country's budget goes towards paying the cost of uninsured patients getting medical care? As for practical, I believe all of us should have the ability to access health care. Thanks for your info

[lesleypalmer]

04:59 PM on 03/09/2011

Obama isn't affecting their attitudes towards the healthcare reform law, it's more about the idea that blacks may be getting something they don't deserve.

Yep...that says it all.

[roger37]

06:48 PM on 03/09/2011

That's for sure. I could take that sentence and hang it on most of the white people I've met in the four cities, North and South, that I have lived in, and it would be correct most of the time--especially with old people. And giving these people facts, or giving them personal anecdotes from minoities I know wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.

[sandracoston]

06:16 PM on 04/12/2011

Sad isn't it...I have noticed that those who live in more progressive states and states that have a lot of Universities tend to be more diverse and more tolerant..I am grateful that I live in Oregon or at least the northern part of it..in fact I think the thing I love the most about Portland ...no body seems to care if you are black white christian muslim rich or poor...it is a community that works together ...I wish the whole country was this way...I am so grateful....

[oilfield]

11:42 PM on 03/09/2011

the point is that in our country that was founded by a set of rules...we all deserve whatever we work for/earn.....not forcing one man to slave for another man.....black people should find this more abhorrent than anyone.

[lesleypalmer]

03:17 PM on 03/10/2011

As civilizations progress, things that were defined as luxuries for some become rights for all. In the Middle Ages, education was only for the elite. We have changed our practices since then, with the understanding that an educated public is a more productive public. This is how societies evolve. We must decide whether medical coverage is a public good or not. Most Western nations regard medical coverage as elemental to good public policy. This is how things work. It is not about who "takes advantage". It is about where we go to forge a stronger nation.

[supergenius02]

03:47 PM on 03/09/2011

It is completely irresponsible for HP to post such obvious nonesense and clear phoney "research." Basically, liberals will try to paint anyone who has an honest disagreement with their views as biggots and will create "research" to prove it. I am a black conservative that opposes Obamacare because of the financial costs that will burden our nation for generations to come. The sad thing is that the real biggots are liberals. They are obsessed with placing people into categories by race, gender, nationality, etc instead of allowing people to be people. Thanks to liberalism, Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of a color blind society will never be realized because libeals will always try to create racial conflict.

[lesleypalmer]

05:00 PM on 03/09/2011

You're a supergenius?

[roger37]

06:52 PM on 03/09/2011

woops--the post above, not below.

[roger37]

06:50 PM on 03/09/2011

This is a good example of what I mentioned in the post below, in answer to your post, lesley.

And you can always trust a "biggot" to misspell "bigot."

[Pucker]

03:45 PM on 03/09/2011

Is there anything remotely new about this? It's just a rehash of the same welfare queen / Southern Strategy nonsense that has been played since Ronald Reagan. This is the main reason people vote for Republicans since the 1960's -- a backlash to the Civil Rights gains.

This is why the Tea Party exists - a political movement that can't say what it wants.....because their real issue (ignorance/racism) doesn't work in public. So they vote for people who balance a 400 billion dollar tax cut for the rich with a 400 million dollar spending cut on the poor.

Break this bloc of stupid voters up, and the Republican party will not exist in its current form.

[KOSMOCITIZEN]

01:21 PM on 03/09/2011

one of the reasons we had '' the booming 90's'' is the fact that minorities ,women, and special blacks got better jobs because education, got some respect and as result they spend more in to the economy.
and then the W curse cover the whole country..

[Smithn]

12:17 PM on 03/09/2011

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not rregarded as members of the herd." Bertrand Russell

--I wish we could herd them all into Arizona for deportation to the newly suceded Texas 2.0.

[PWM]

11:58 AM on 03/09/2011

Like most Republicans, Reagan viewed nonwhites in a negative light. Reagan was also a racist, he opened his 1980 campaign in Neshoba County, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers had been murdered in the 1960s, and preached state rights (the rally cry of the south and proracists jim crow advocates), and grumbled about Welfare Queens who rode around in pink caddies - of course, HollyWood had made a habit of showing welfare receipients in the movies during the 60s and 70s as overwhelmingly black and black pimps ridding around in pink caddies. The message was that I don't like blacks so you can vote for me. In 1966 he said he would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When president he vetoed in 1988 the Civil Rights Restoration Act which required any organization receiving federal funds to comply with the already existing civil rights legislation - Reagan saw nothing wrong with black tax dollars going to organizations that refused to hire blacks.

[shothot]

05:14 AM on 03/13/2011

A good Reagan Republican will balme it on the liberals.

[cylixdemas]

10:14 AM on 03/14/2011

Damn

[PWM]

11:58 AM on 03/09/2011

In 1928...... ....

In order to gain Republican votes in southern states, Hoover pioneered a policy which would later be known as the "Southern Strategy". Hoover ousted many African American leaders in the Republican party and replaced them with whites. In Hoover's appeal to white voters, the result was the Republican victory in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. It marked the first time a Republican candidate for president won Texas. This outraged African American leadership, who broke from the Republican Party and began seeking candidates in the Democratic Party who supported civil rights.[19 ][21]

http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/H erbert_Hoo ver#Southe rn_strateg y

[The Notorious PDF]

12:55 PM on 03/09/2011

Thanks. Even I didn't realize that the southern strategy actually started with Hoover, and not Nixon.

[PWM]

01:14 PM on 03/09/2011

Started with Hoover, was then dropped under people like Ike, went back into vogue with Nixon and Reagan finally succeeded in getting the dixicrats to change parties.

[IndyFem]

11:31 AM on 03/09/2011

For what its worth....I am a White Woman in my 50s...and for the past 2 years have not been able to afford Health Insurance. Fortunately...I am in good health and never have been someone to "run to the doctor."
I am still against the current Health Care Bill....

[tinri]

11:40 AM on 03/09/2011

Good for your fortune of being in good health. What's your plan when, not if, the unfortunate happens?

[IndyFem]

12:17 PM on 03/09/2011

Maybe I'm a Dreamer...but...I am hoping that the time will come when there is a "Public Option"....or..."Universal health Care."
The current HC bill....is much more beneficial to the Insurance Companies..than to us.

[PWM]

11:54 AM on 03/09/2011

Would you hold the same view if you were in poor health?

[IndyFem]

12:20 PM on 03/09/2011

If I were in "poor health" I would still prefer a Public Option...or...Universal Health Care...
Many people have DIED because the Insurance Companies have skimped on and/or denied treatment altogether. It's kind of a Krap Shute.....

[liberalcomesfromliberty]

11:30 AM on 03/09/2011

More white privalege being exposed. This is also true when it comes to social security.

[tek knowledge]

01:12 PM on 03/09/2011

I prefer the term "white supremacy".