Health reform is a rough ride, so here’s a germane quote from America’s favorite rough rider -- Teddy Roosevelt:
“When you are in a hole – stop digging.”
Germane, because of some new poll numbers on health care reform.
According to a new national poll from GfK Roper (sponsored by CMPI-Advance), 70% of Americans oppose using budget reconciliation to pass health care reform and 60% believe it is unfair for House leadership to have the option to introduce a procedural rule that would “deem” the Senate health care reform bill as being passed without actually voting on the legislation itself.
Americans do not support for increasing Medicare payroll taxes for the high wage earners (46% support, 47% oppose) or reducing what doctors and hospitals are paid for their services (45% support, 48% oppose). The survey shows that Americans are evenly split in their belief that the Congressional health care proposal will increase taxes and premiums for the 73 million Americans with health insurance (as estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation).
Other findings include:
· 81% of those polled strongly oppose health care reforms that would increase insurance premiums for healthy people to offset premiums of people who wait until they are diagnosed with an illness to purchase insurance.
· 80% oppose allowing the government to decide what kind of health care coverage Americans are able to purchase.
· 87% oppose having a government panel recommend or decide what medical procedures or medical advances your doctor can use or your health plan can pay for.
· 84% support reforms that would allow people to buy health insurance across state lines.
· 3 out of 4 Americans oppose healthcare reforms that would raise taxes and cut Medicare benefits to pay for health care subsidies for expanded coverage for the uninsured.
· 84% support healthcare reforms that would let people get lower premiums for getting or staying healthy.
Complete survey results can be found here.
Madame Speaker – stop digging.
Survey Methodology
GfK Roper completed 1,000 interviews, made up of male and female adults (in approximately equal number), all 18 years of age and over. The interviews were conducted between March 12 and March 14, 2010. The margin of error for this study is ± 3 percentage points.
Sampling for this study was conducted using a national probability sample of all exchanges and area codes across the continental United States. All interviews were conducted using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system. Statistical weights were designed from United States Census Bureau statistics.