The Times has a report about their new poll on today’s front page. As Adam Nagourney and Dalia Sussman put it in their lead, Obama “is confronting declining support for his handling of the war in Afghanistan and an electorate confused and anxious about a healthcare overhaul.” While that’s true, the most interesting part of the poll isn’t reported until near the end of the story, where we find this:
On one of the most contentious issues in the health care debate–whether to establish a government-run health insurance plan as an alternative to private insurers–nearly two-thirds of the country continues to favor the proposal, which is backed by Mr. Obama but has drawn intense fire from most Republicans and some moderate Democrats.
Indeed, what theTimes asked was whether people supported “the government offering everyone a government-administered health insurance plan like Medicare.” That would be more ambitious than even some of the “public option” proposals discussed in Congress, which would not necessarily be available to “everyone.” In other words, the public–in the face of a hostile and/or dismissive media system–prefers a substantially more progressive health care plan than anything being discussed in the Beltway or in the corporate media. In fact, they seem to support something resembling the “Medicare for all” concept that was trashed in the Sunday New York Times. You might find that newsworthy…but not if you’re the New York Times.
Of course, “Medicare for all” – aka a single payer system – isn’t “backed by Obama”, is it? And none of the “public option” proposals – even the “robust” ones “progressive” congresspersons are so enamored of – gets us there either, do they?
That’s one reason folks are “confused and anxious”, isn’t it – when they say they want single payer, and the corpress conflates that with the insurance industry giveaway from the administration, and the half-measures in Congress, and they have no means of sussing that from the mainstream media.
“Red is grey, and yellow, white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion”
This is not exactly accurate, the full question states: “Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government-administered health-insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private insurance plans?” Isn’t that just a public option? A single-payer plan excludes private insurance plan doesn’t it?
Also I’m sympathetic to single-payer and all, but, have you seen this recent Rasmussen poll(http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/august_2009/32_favor_single_payer_health_care_57_oppose)? Altough this poll seems to contradict every other poll, it is the most recent one, and the numbers are almost reversed from what we could see in previous polls. Any comments on how this could be possible?
HR676, that is “Improved and Expanded Medicare For All”, is a bill already proposed before Congress; all citizens, that is. We can still push for it! The administration for Medicare is already in place, so it all could be up and running faster and at less cost than something completely new.
@jesse: long story short: rasmussen oversamples republicans……if your look at their “obama approval ratings” or “generic congressional preference” polls, their results are always reversed from what we see in other polls.
What’s especially interesting is that Democrats opposed to a government-run health insurance plan supported by nearly two-thirds of US citizens can be described by the NY Times as “moderate.” Wouldn’t “conservative” have been more accurate? If I had written the piece, I would have chosen the more colloquial “dumbass.”
To just jump from “a plan like Medicare” all the way to the public wanting “a substantially more progressive health care plan” than what is being proposed is missing of the question. The question was asking if the public would like a public system in place to compete with the private insurers not the degree to which they wanted it.
Also, polls like these are horrible at indicating the leaning of the public because they will overemphasize the populations that use those media sources. Perhaps of you made the argument while using a real scientific poll with carefully worded questions and a representative sample, then I would believe some of what was stated if the question was clearly worded so as to imply a substantially more progressive health care plan compared to Obama’s proposition.
The New York Times seems to have a problem with non-private health care. Back in the early ninenties I had to write a letter to the editor complaining about a piece quoting a Spanish economist (i am a Spaniard myself) out of context to justify that those lazy Europeans just want the State to provide for them. It was one more in a series of biases, one-sided reports about the model of health care the Clintons wanted to pass, all of them portraying the failures and abuses of these public systems in European countries. It was very clear to me that the NYT had a special interests in having the public option ruled out. I can imagine that in these times of tight financial circumstances they more than ever will try to protect the bigger interests feeding them.
Polls can be fudged if you word the question a certain way and limit to whom you ask it too. Rasmussin is on Fox all the time so go figure their bias.
Somewhere near 70% want a better health care system than what we have. Unless you listen to Fox and the rest of the GOP mouth pieces out there.
I believe that Justin is mistaken about the media polls. They do not poll only there own readers (it’s Fox Noise that does that). They contract with professional polling organizations that follows the procedures outlined by Justin.
In the case of Rasmussen, I have read that they count only those “strongly” in favor, believing that intensity is more important than numbers. Given the effectiveness of the right wing noise machine, it is no surprise that opponents would register more “strongly” than the average respondent.
I got a phone call from a polling agency yesterday, can’t remember which one, and on the second question I answered “no”. The next question was whether I was a republican. When I answered “no” to that question they thanked me and hung up. Selective polling?