Poll: Most Americans support federal health care guarantee (NY Times, via CommonDreams)

[marmar]

Published on Friday, March 2, 2007 by the New York Times
Most Support U.S. Guarantee of Health Care
by Robin Toner and Janet Elder

A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

While the war in Iraq remains the overarching issue in the early stages of the 2008 campaign, access to affordable health care is at the top of the public’s domestic agenda, ranked far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values.

Only 24 percent said they were satisfied with President Bush’s handling of the health insurance issue, despite his recent initiatives, and 62 percent said the Democrats were more likely to improve the health care system.

Americans showed a striking willingness in the poll to make tradeoffs to guarantee health insurance for all, including paying as much as $500 more in taxes a year and forgoing future tax cuts.

But the same divisions that doomed the last effort at creating universal health insurance, under the Clinton administration, are still apparent. Americans remain divided, largely along party lines, over whether the government should require everyone to participate in a national health care plan, and over whether the government would do a better job than the private insurance industry in providing coverage. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0302-06.htm

[Benhurst]

1. Now, if they can just get a representative government,

it'll be a done deal.