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Americans split in opinion on health care
People participate in a protest on the second day of oral arguments for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building on March 27, 2012 in Washington, D.C. According to Gallup, a majority of Americans don't anticipate many positive changes to come with the Affordable Care Act. Support for health care reform roughly tracks the same numbers as President Obama's approval ratings.
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Kai Ryssdal: See now, look at this: We're halfway through the broadcast and only just now mentioning the health care law. It's been three days worth of legal arguments, analysis and ex post facto what ifs.
What we haven't heard much of, though, is what Americans really think about the law and the individual mandate and what ought to happen.
Frank Newport is the editor-in-chief of Gallup. He's here every week for a little Attitude Check. Frank, good to talk to you again.
Frank Newport: Good to be with you, Kai.
Ryssdal: Let's start with a little ground truth here: Americans were split two years ago when this law was signed; we are, I'm presuming, still fairly split on this thing?
Newport: That's right. A lot of polling, a lot of people ask about the P.P.A.C.A. in different ways.
Ryssdal: That would be the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, for those who couldn't follow the acronym.
Newport: That's correct. Actually, nobody who asked about it actually reads all that out, but people describe it in different ways. That's right -- our last poll at Gallup and other polls show it breaks even, or actually tilts negative. I haven't seen any polls that actually show, say, a majority of Americans who support the health care act.
Ryssdal: When you ask them, have they seen an impact in their lives yet? Granting that a lot of provisions don't get kick in until 2014, as we see.
Newport: We have Americans say no, perhaps rationally so. You've got about 10 percent who say, oh yeah, I've gotten better as a result of this, something about my health care's gotten better. Roughly the same percent say something's gotten worse. But the majority of Americans have seen no impact. Personally, I haven't for my family. At least the majority don't anticipate a lot of positive effect in the future either.
Ryssdal: And that goes along with something else in your surveys, right, that something like seven out of 10 Americans are generally satisfied with the state of their health care?
Newport: That's what we find. Health care is not personally a major issue to a lot of Americans, as you said last time we tracked this. Of course, a lot of this act is not intended to help the average American -- it's intended to help the uninsured or say 18- to 25-year-olds and other small groups like that on a relative basis. But overall, Americans don't say that health care is their biggest personal issue.
Ryssdal: Acknowledging that Americans by and large are not constitutional scholars, what do they think about the Supreme Court and whether the Supreme Court ought to just chuck this thing and strike the whole individual mandate down?
Newport: Yeah, you and I are two of the few who have read all 2,000-plus pages right?
Ryssdal: That's right, yeah.
Newport: But yeah, seven out of 10 Americans, when asked, say that the Supreme Court should strike down the individual mandate part of the bill, not at all a popular provision of the Affordable Care Act.
Ryssdal: What about expectation of future return, you know, a lot of the provisions in this thing don't kick in until 2014 -- do people expect the health care situation in this country, the health insurance situation, to get better when it finally does kick in?
Newport: Very mixed picture. You've got a third of Americans, roughly, who'll say yeah, I think things will get better, but about as many or even more say things will get worse, and a lot say it will make no difference.
Ryssdal: Just to sum up here, it seems like we really can't make up our minds how we feel about this thing. We're split on it overall, we don't like parts of it, we like parts of it.
Newport: And I think, Kai, a lot of the reason for that is this is a political act. Remember, now even the Obama administration calls it Obamacare, so it's highly identified with Obama. Most Americans who have not read the act, they don't what's in it really, so they're reacting to President Obama. He's got a job approval rating in the 40 percent, the high 40 percent range. And it's roughly that many people that approve of the act.
Ryssdal: That's actually a great insight -- approval of this thing tracks with the president's approval ratings?
Newport: That's right, roughly speaking.
Ryssdal: That's amazing. Frank Newport is the editor-in-chief at Gallup. The segment we do with them every week is called Attitude Check. Frank, until next week.
Newport: Great, thank you.
Government spend a lot in health care systems in US than any other country but still people are not getting proper health care service. Most of the people even don't know completely about Obamacare act but reacting heavily to it. I think there is need of awareness among public about our present health care system so that they can decide how they will get maximum benefits from their investment.
http://healthcallin.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/health-insurance-plans-and-...
When the Supreme Court reveals in June that they actually upheld the health care mandate, it will surely come as a great surprise to all, but it shouldn’t. It is really a stroke of Machiavellian political genius to imagine that public relations experts have succeeded in getting Democrats to back a neo-conservative bill hatched at the Heritage Foundation and implemented by Mitt (wit), while Republicans shout and scream that it threatens to move us all one step closer to socialism. Political pundits are preoccupied with how its defeat might negatively affect the President’s approval rating, with progressives defending his support of it on the basis of how truly right of center it is. And it is! This should be cause for repudiating it, not championing it. There is absolutely nothing progressive about this bill. It has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with carving out commercial markets for industry and investor profits for Wall Street, via coercive government intervention. People need to stop believing the lies fed to them by BOTH corporate-backed parties. Without a public option, this bill effectively forces Americans into the position of being a captive market to private industry, feeding the greed of investors and subordinating them to the interests of high finance and commercial industry. Passage of this bill will mark the final linchpin of America’s descent into a reactionary corporate state. It will not be out of step with the Supreme Court at all. It will be yet another feather in its extremist right-wing cap, in a long history of pro-business, anti-consumer/wage-earner/taxpayer decisions: Corporations are people; bribery equals free speech; and forcing consumers to buy from investor-led commercial markets that trade on the NYSE—with the full authority of the federal government behind them—is Constitutional, responsible, and good for your health.
Throw out the SCourt, the last bastion of defense against legislation thrust on an unwilling American public? Americans do not want the "mandate," and despite the deceptive "summary" of Gallup findings by the host of this show it isn't even close. Don't like Gallup? Maybe you'll like The Economist poll less: 70-20 in total think the mandate unconstitutional; 90-5 GOP; 70-20 Independents; and (are you ready?) 55+-35+ demos (Ryssdal take note). While it is hard to see how, the Court may rule in favor of the "legality" of the mandate, but if they do it is yet another example of guvmint over-reach in the Age of o -- and the American people know it.
I was really underwhelmed by your interview with Dr. Newport . We need insightful commentators that can help us understand these complex issues, rather than parroting back to us the ‘opinions’ of the American people. I am not surprised that ‘Health care is not personally a major issue to a lot of Americans”. That is also true about auto insurance - that is until you get into an accident. If you could have asked the people on the Titanic whether the number of lifeboats was a major issue, they probably would have said a similar thing before they hit the iceberg. Just like with auto insurance, the people that don’t carry insurance are the ones helping to push the costs up for all of us.
Those were the best questions Newport had? We need thoughtful observations on today’s news and we need to understand the importance that the health care issue has for our aging society, our economy and the future. Dr. Newport missed that boat – but maybe Fox News would like to hear his reporting?
There's a rolling 10 to 11% of the work force that must have experienced some sort of negative effect. Yeah... that's the 10 to 11% of us that have been officially unemployed. Unemployed either don't have health insurance or you have this thing called cobra. I've had the misfortune of being on cobra twice. I paid $713.84 a month back in 2009. Now I pay $1627.95 a month. These folks that haven't been laid off before are going to be in for a big surprise. Being Jack Welched is right around the corner for all of us. Try buying health insurance when you are unemployed. First you've got to jump through all the pre-screens. I challenge everyone to say they can do better than what we've got for choices today. Walk a mile in my shoes and then lets see how you'll vote.
One more thing... Instead of throwing the health care bill out, I say we throw the entire Supreme Court out. These are the clowns that said a corporation is a person that can throw as much money as they want around for a political cause. These are the clowns that gave us 8 years of George Bush Buffoonery (via hanging chads) which resulted in the Lehman Bros collapse. C'mon... the 99% are already feeling enough pain! Throw this kangaroo court out to pasture! They have failed us (the 99%)!
Newport: "That's right -- our last poll at Gallup and other polls show it breaks even, or actually tilts negative. I haven't seen any polls that actually show, say, a majority of Americans who support the health care act."
Ryssdal:"Just to sum up here...We're split on it overall, we don't like parts of it, we like parts of it."
What? Did you not hear him say the polls TILT NEGATIVE!!!
You know, I consider myself a conservative independent. I don't listen to network news because of the constant screaming over one another. I listen to NPR for its rational reporting, but moments like this...I have to turn it off.
Report what the guest is saying. Do not change it for ANY reason. You are as unreliable as Mr. Daisy when you manipulate the facts.
...Just to sum up here, it seems like we really can't make up our minds how we feel about this thing. We're split on it overall, we don't like parts of it, we like parts of it.
That may be NPR's "wishful thinking" so-called summary of the Gallup poll, but it was not what Newport said. Clearly Americans are divided, but mostly to the negative, kill-the-bill side. Some 7/10 want the mandate killed, and Gallup has never -- that would be never -- shown a majority of Americans in favor; nevertheless, this website shows a pro-oCare photo as a lead-in! I keep tuning into this show after months away hoping it is no longer "market lite," but it persists. There is nothing on NPR that speaks from a truly business, free enterprise perspective -- I think the folks on this show don't even know what that is.
