Support for ObamaCare has fallen to just 34 percent of the American public, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's most recent tracking poll. That's down from 41 percent in just one month.
Can't say I'm surprised. Just as they did during the debate on health care reform in 2009 and 2010, the special interests who profit from the status quo have been winning the messaging battle in their ongoing effort to scare people away from the new law. They have a well-planned and executed strategy to mislead people so thoroughly they will vote next year for candidates who promise to repeal the law, even if that means they will be voting against their own best interests. The strategy of the law's backers -- if indeed there is one -- is simply not working.
One reason reform advocates cite for the decline in support: relentless attacks on the law by GOP presidential candidates, especially during those free-for-all debates. At one of the recent get-togethers, Newt Gingrich even resurrected the biggest of the big lies -- that the law creates government-run death plans that will decide when to pull the plug on sick Medicare beneficiaries. Supporters can't expect debate moderators to challenge the candidates on such baseless accusations, and they don't have comparable forums to communicate how the law is helping millions of Americans. At least not yet.
Another factor in falling support for ObamaCare is that opponents are out-dueling supporters in placement of op-ed commentaries and letters to the editor. While I haven't seen detailed analyses of the op-ed placement war, my own observation, as someone who reads a lot of newspapers, is that the critics have gotten way more ink than the fans.
That doesn't surprise me, either. During my years as a health insurance industry PR guy, I helped craft and implement plans that involved recruiting seemingly ordinary folks to send letters and op-eds that had actually been written by industry flacks.
Lies about the reform law have also gone viral on the Internet. That's not new, but it appears from emails friends and acquaintances forward to me that the dissemination of bogus information has picked up.
A few days ago a friend in Alabama passed along one such email with the subject line: "What a Bombshell!"
The stop-the-presses news was about the results of a survey by the United Nations International Health Organization that had supposedly just been published by Investors Business Daily. It revealed that people who live in England and Canada fare much worse than Americans when it comes to surviving cancer, being treated for diabetes, getting a hip replacement when needed and getting an appointment with a specialist.
The inference, of course, was that the reform law would lead to a rapid deterioration in access to quality medical care.
Well, it turns out that there is no such entity as the United Nations International Health Organization and no evidence that such a survey was published by Investors Business Daily. Editorially, that newspaper has been a critic of reform, so it was plausible, but a search failed to turn up such a story.
Another big problem with the "bombshell" is that ObamaCare creates nothing like the single-payer health care systems in England and Canada. In fact, to the great disappointment of many reform advocates, the law gives the uniquely American multi-payer system, controlled by large for-profit insurance corporations, a new lease on life.
The alleged "bombshell" has been circulating in the ether for two years. While it's unclear who first sent it, I was able to find versions of it dating back to 2009.
It is true that in a number of measures, the U.S. does do better than other developed countries, including England and Canada. But it is also true that we do far, far worse in many other measures, and we are falling further behind.
That was borne out in the results of a real report by the Commonwealth Fund. The authors of the Fund's "National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011" wrote that "access to health care (has) significantly eroded since 2006. As of 2010, more than 81 million working-age adults were uninsured or underinsured, up from 61 million in 2003. Further, the U.S. failed to keep pace with gains in health outcomes achieved by the leading countries. The U.S. ranks last out of 16 industrialized countries on a measure of mortality amenable to medical care (deaths that might have been prevented with timely and effective care), with premature death rates that are dramatically worse than in the best performing countries. Some 91,000 fewer people would die prematurely if the U.S. could match the rates in leading nations."
The Commonwealth Fund report hasn't gone viral. But it should. And supporters of reform better get on the stick and pay attention to what opponents are doing if they expect the reform law to be implemented as Congress intended.
Follow Wendell Potter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wendellpotter
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Canada, and Great Britain have laws that require their "NEWS" to be truthful. The US doesn't.
WHY?
"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. -Abraham Lincoln-
Why doesn't our Government TRUST us with the real facts? If they did, they would have laws requiring mainstream media to stick to them.
Well, then, make it go viral. Get the word out. Keep sending out the report to all the people you know, and ask them to forward it on to all Progressive thinkers.
We need a single payer system. Healthcare costs are draining the nation of a future. As much to blame as Wall Street, our Insurance Industry has created a ponzy scheme, in my opinion, that no nation should be supporting.
From the report: "..Sharply rising costs are putting both access and budgets at risk. Health care spending per person in the U.S. is double that in several other major industrialized countries, and costs in the U.S. continue to rise faster than income. We are headed toward spending $1 of every $5 of national income on health care. .."
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Fund-Reports/2011/Oct/Why-Not-the-Best-2011.aspx?page=all
A good example; my employer just sent us an email yesterday explaining the changes in our insurance for next year. Higher co-pays, higher premium, higher deductible, a 'surcharge' to carry my wife on my insurance if she could get insurance through her employer (which she can, but the insurance offered her is even more expensive with higher deductibles so I'm just going to have to pay the 'surcharge').
The people want results, and the only result most of us see so far is an increase in our costs for less coverage. It doesn't matter to most what, why or how. The question is; when? When will the reform help them? If the answer isn't 'soon', then the opposition has the upper hand.
Then what the hell is the point of having the moderator?
or paying a bit less( yes a tax increase but one that leaves more money in your pocket) to the government (with proven 3% overhead costs for medicare) for the same care and the peace of mind that no matter how sick you may become your family will not be made homeless? I know where I vote...medicare for all is the only sane answer to the Health Care question!
Right On tacevad, and please do Write On, too.
I have a deduction on my paycheck every week for "health care". I don't care if you call it "premium" or "tax". But I sure as heck would rather it be lower!
The sole purpose of Obamacare is to destroy our current medical insurance structure, so we have no choice but socialized medicine. More power in D.C., more sheep in the herd.
There will be rationing. We simply cannot afford the best possible care for everyone. The Mayo Clinic is not that big. This is currently regulated by cost. Socialized, we drop to the lowest common denominator, and research will grind to a halt.
First off, I live in Canada, our system is amazing, but not perfect. About 70% of the HC system is in the hands of the Government. Since the system is in public hands, the average citizen can Vote or write a letter, etc… to assorted Political Parties if they like or dislike their Health Care. Right now in the USA, Corporations don’t care about what you think about their HC.
People live in groups, and groups defray costs and provide cheaper economies of scale. If the Socialism label is too much to stomach, make up a new name.
And you already live in a very “Socialist” setting, even in the USA: Public roads, public schools, some public Health, By-Laws, Speed Limits on the Auto-Bahn like Interstate Highway System, Public Police and Fire Departments, Public Armed Forces in 173 Countries etc…
Another fun bit of Single-Payer Healthcare in Canada, no Citizen can go bankrupt due to a Medical Condition, so we can save our money, invest it, Travel to the Caribbean and it’s Cradle to Grave, it’s always there no matter what job you work at, FACT! And no Bills, Americans know the endless paper work well after the complications.
Single payer is the only sensible solution for a sane society.
You are correct, a greate deal of our healthcare is socialized, medicare and medicaid, and both are going bankrupt. Our socialist education system is also doing a bang up job.
A great deal of our problems associated with private insurance are the result of government interference. For example, in the State I live, it is illegal for a coop to be formed solely for the purpose of negotiating medical insurance. Another is that government requires a 57 year old man to be insured for pregnancy, and autism.
The majority of people who file for medical bankruptcy had insurance. That won't change under Obamacare, not at all. It's single payer or nothing as far as I'm concerned.
The most powerful propaganda tool that reaches 10's of millions all day every day is AM radio. Over 90 percent is Rush-type misinformation. After the national shows these stations play Rush parrots to repeat and repeat and saturate the country with the corporate agenda.
Rush is entertainment...relax!