When asked: "Would you favor or oppose the government's offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans?"
Overall: 72% favor, 20% opposeThat's pretty striking, given that it's seems such a difficult thing to accept in the halls of Congress. Of course, the insurance companies are not paying the people in the street, like they are those in the halls of Congress.
Republicans: 50% favor, 39% oppose
Democrats: 87% favor, 9% oppose
Independents: 73% favor, 22% oppose
Question: "Would you be willing or not willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans have health insruance that they can't lose no matter what?"
Overall: 57% willing, 37% not willingQuestion: ""Which is a more serious problem right now: keeping health care costs down or providing health insurance for Americans who do not have any?"
Income > $50,000: 64% willing, 27% not willing
Income < $50,000: 52% willing, 44% not willing
All respondents: costs down 26%, provide insurance 65%If our Congress listened to the people instead of the insurance industry, effective health care reform with a public option would be a slam-dunk.
Republicans: costs down 52%, provide insurance 42%
Democrats: costs down 15%, provide insurance 78%
Independents: costs down 24%, provide insurance 64%
Ralph
I am a health insurance agent in Utah. I sit on the board of the Utah health underwriters as webmaster for http://www.benefitsmanager.net/ and http://www.uahu.org/. I was heavily involved in designed a web connector to help Utah residents by pulling private and state sponsored insurance mechanisms together. It had a low budget of around $150k that virtually guaranteed health insurance coverage through either the private or state programs. Better yet all the local carriers agreed to split the costs. Our state insurance task force committee rejected the idea. They elected to go for a Massachusetts type connector program that isn't working well when you actually dig deep and check facts of where they are now. Our state approved H.B. 188 with a zero fiscal note attachment! My point is, I have been a fly on the wall in countless legislative meetings, insurance board meetings, hospital board meetings, the list goes on. The problem is conflict with the market demanding profit in all sectors of the system. Tough order to fill and keep costs down? You are absolutely right when you claim that healthcare is now unsustainable. I have been crying that a long time. Nobody listens.
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