Mr Spinkles
Mr
This Reuters poll is from 2012 but it's been the trend for some time:
Most Americans oppose health law but like provisions | Reuters
When Americans know it simply as "the health care overhaul" they are 56% opposed to 44% in favor. It's educational to break this down in two ways:
(1) Do Americans oppose what's actually in the law? Well, when Americans are asked if they support its major provisions, such as requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and kids until age 26, and requiring employers with over 50 employees to offer health coverage, a solid majority favors them (82%, 61% and 72%, respectively). The one exception to this is the individual mandate, which 61% oppose. But interestingly, when Gallup asked the same question without using the word "mandate" back in 2009, 56% favored it.
(2) Why do Americans oppose the law? Consider the fact that before 2010, a solid majority of Americans favored a "public option" (65% in 2009) and had favored this going back many years., Interestingly, of the Republicans and Independents who disagree with the current reform, around 70% reject it "overall" while around 30% feel it "does not go far enough", and 51% of Democratic opponents also feel it "does not go far enough". Add to this the fact that 56% of Americans wanted Congress to pass "major healthcare reform" in year 2009 while only 33% opposed it, and we start to see a picture emerging: a significant amount of the "opposition" to Obamacare is due to the hope in 2009 that major reform would be passed, including a public option. Lots of people were disappointed that this didn't happen and oppose the law on that basis.
So it's very interesting that opposition to Obamacare, according to polling data, seems to come from two primary sources: (1) people oppose it because they are misinformed, (2) people oppose it because they wanted major reform and this reform did not go far enough, and most of them probably wanted a public option.
Discuss.
Most Americans oppose health law but like provisions | Reuters
When Americans know it simply as "the health care overhaul" they are 56% opposed to 44% in favor. It's educational to break this down in two ways:
(1) Do Americans oppose what's actually in the law? Well, when Americans are asked if they support its major provisions, such as requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and kids until age 26, and requiring employers with over 50 employees to offer health coverage, a solid majority favors them (82%, 61% and 72%, respectively). The one exception to this is the individual mandate, which 61% oppose. But interestingly, when Gallup asked the same question without using the word "mandate" back in 2009, 56% favored it.
(2) Why do Americans oppose the law? Consider the fact that before 2010, a solid majority of Americans favored a "public option" (65% in 2009) and had favored this going back many years., Interestingly, of the Republicans and Independents who disagree with the current reform, around 70% reject it "overall" while around 30% feel it "does not go far enough", and 51% of Democratic opponents also feel it "does not go far enough". Add to this the fact that 56% of Americans wanted Congress to pass "major healthcare reform" in year 2009 while only 33% opposed it, and we start to see a picture emerging: a significant amount of the "opposition" to Obamacare is due to the hope in 2009 that major reform would be passed, including a public option. Lots of people were disappointed that this didn't happen and oppose the law on that basis.
So it's very interesting that opposition to Obamacare, according to polling data, seems to come from two primary sources: (1) people oppose it because they are misinformed, (2) people oppose it because they wanted major reform and this reform did not go far enough, and most of them probably wanted a public option.
Discuss.