Turns out that most Americans like most of the health care law.

[ProSense]

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll -- November 2010









PDF


Dear Republicans good luck trying to repeal or defund health care.

[elleng]

1. Good info; thx.

Not much that a bit of logic wouldn't conclude, tho!

[Whisp]

2. thanks again, ProSense

you are a treasure trove of good information

[zipplewrath]

3. Then there are what voters thought

"Looking ahead, Americans remain divided about what lawmakers should do, with 21 percent of the public favoring expansion of the health reform law, 19 percent wanting to leave it as is, a quarter wanting to repeal parts of the law, and 24 percent wanting the entire law repealed. Among mid-term voters, a majority (56%) would like to see the law repealed entirely or in part."

56% want it repealed entirely. Presumably an additional portion would like to see portions of it repealed. That's fertile ground for the GOP.

[ProSense]

5. "56% want it repealed entirely." Yeah

if you leave out the rest of the statement: "Among mid-term voters, a majority (56%) would like to see the law repealed entirely or in part."

Only 24 percent of the public and 32 percent of voters fall into that category, and the significant majority of those voted Republican.

On edit: Also, the point of the OP is that clearly those wanting it repealed also like most of the law.

[zipplewrath]

6. Ultimately it's voters that matter

Kaiser put out some other data I'm not finding right now talking about how people claimed the health care reform affected their voting. It was an equally mixed bag, but it leaned negative with a large number wanting various aspects repealed.

What we can almost always see in these polls is that people declare that they want various aspects repealed, they just don't seem to know what those aspects are. Much like people who want the budget cut, but can't really articulate which programs to cut. Or folks that don't want government run health care, but declare they we should keep our hands off their medicare.

There's what people say, and how they vote, and the latter wins elections.

[ProSense]

9. "but it leaned negative"

Part is not all. A significant majority of voters (nearly 70 percent) do not want the entire law repealed.

That the majority of voters only want the mandate repealed is a significant problem for the GOP.

[zipplewrath]

13. it is a problem

The "significance" of it is in question. If you read Frum's column, what you see is that predominately the GOP is planning on using their representation of HCR as a fund raising feature and a GOTV motivator. They don't have an real plans to "repeal and replace". For one thing, as Frum points out, it has features they can't run on, like bringing back the donut hole. They can remove some of the taxes, but that will just increase its cost. That leaves them to defund CHC, remove the mandate, and eliminate the cadillac taxes.

The problem for them is that the cadillac taxes and the mandates were their ideas. Heck, a huge portion of this thing is their idea. So they can try to "repeal" but mostly they'll either be repealing much of what they wanted in the first place, or the more popular parts like pre-existing and lifetime limits. The insurance companies want the unpopular parts kept, and the popular sections repealed. I don't see the GOP bothering to do that, especially considering that they'd need veto proof majorities, or control of the White House to accomplish it.

So it leaves the GOP to basically campaign ON the bill as being against it, but much like campaigning on abortion, there is no real intent on actually doing anything. So it isn't really much of a problem when they don't. But it does give them something to run against for several cycles, and apparently the democrats to run FROM.

[Chulanowa]

4. Clearly the Majority of Americans are out of touch with America!

After all, the Progressive litmus-testers in the DU echo chamber are telling me that this thing is pure unadulterated evil that has no good points and even if it did they wouldn't count. CLEARLY I should disregard the information you have posted!

[Ikonoklast]

7. If the mandate was taken out of that survey, it would be even higher.

That is what gets most people riled up about the HCR bill. The rest of it, for the most part, almost everyone likes more or less, to varying degrees.


The stumbling block is the mandate...but if it wasn't there, people would game the system to let others pay for them.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That mandate is a real winner, isn't it?

The single aspect that most people would like to repeal, the one thing that Obama said he'd never do, which of course he did right away and without hesitation. Very telling.

[CBR]

10. Thank you! nt

[woo me with science]

11. Of course people like pieces of it.

People were hungry for reform, and there are little bits and pieces in here that do help people.

Overall, though, this legislation did nothing to address the fundamental problem with our healthcare system: It did nothing serious to address the spiraling costs and lack of affordability that result from placing for-profit insurance companies at the center of healthcare.

In fact, this legislation ENTRENCHES the role of insurance companies and strangles any hope of controlling costs in a significant way.

We have been reading about stunning jumps in premiums all year. We just saw a new wave of news articles and posts here about the rising tide of Americans who are choosing high deductible plans because they can't afford anything else. They will then skip routine preventative care, because they can't afford to pay for it out-of-pocket. Essentially, people are now buying extremely expensive, high-deductible coverage for catastrophes, because that is all they can afford. And the lack of routine care will make such catastrophes more...routine.

Touting public approval for specific tidbits of this legislation is like asking people to rate Mussolini and highlighting their answers to the questions about making the trains run on time.

[ProSense]

12. "Touting public approval for specific tidbits of this legislation..."

In case you didn't notice, the plurality of both the general public and voters want the bill left as is or expanded.

The fact is that it's impossible to lump those who want a part of it repealed (which turns out to be only the mandate) with those who want to repeal the entire bill.

The telling thing is that the majority of those who want the entire bill repealed are definitely partisan given that they like most of the bill.



edited for clarity.

[woo me with science]

14. Your numbers are not surprising, because they reflect hunger for SOME reform.

As I said, people do want some of the measures in this bill.

This poll will not give you an accurate picture of what people actually want, however, because it talks only about retaining the provisions or getting rid of them. There is no mention of better options that could be put in its place if HCR were repealed...probably because we are hearing nothing about such options from Washington. Of course people will vote to retain specific, pathetic improvements when a more significant restructuring does not even seem to be under consideration.

If you were to redo this poll and underscore that repealing this legislation could open the door to other options, and if you were to poll about what some of those options might be, I daresay the results would be very different....PARTICULARLY if you were to poll about reforming the role of insurance companies in our system and focusing seriously on cost control. THIS poll appears to offer people the option of trains running on time under Mussolini, or no trains at all.


Polls are tricky things. People will respond within the options you present.

[ProSense]

16. "Polls are tricky things." Here's why no Democrat

should worry. People do not like benefits snatched away from them. That was one of the reasons the government shut down of the 90s was so unsuccessful.

Whether or not Republicans want to acknowledge the facts, the health care law is already providing a benefit. By the time the get around to doing anything the benefits to Americans will have increased. Also, it's not like they have a lot of room to work in terms of what to defund.

Nothing is going to stop Republicans for being loud about their desires, and nothing is likely to stop them from theatrics, but the reality is that repeal isn't going to happen, and defunding will be directly associated with them. What are they going to defund?

[woo me with science]

19. Oh, I think you're right about that.

I have already heard several interviews with Republicans who were very cagey about whether repeal of this legislation would need to be replaced with ANYTHING. They are making noises about repealing only parts, but most of them would like to repeal completely and keep the system we had before.

They are dangerous.

That doesn't excuse Democrats from accepting this, though. This legislation is no better in the long run, and probably even worse. It will collapse on itself. It is not going to solve the core problem of costs, and it is going to create a slew of other, more serious problems simply by virtue of the mandates and the failure to address costs. People are going bankrupt, people are skipping routine care, and these things have serious, serious consequences.

Democrats missed a tremendous opportunity here, and they will continue to receive the ire of the voters right along with Republicans, until someone has the integrity and the political will to stand up to the insurance companies and offer real reform. The cost problem is potentially devastating to the entire health care structure, and it has not been solved or even seriously addressed. Claiming to have solved it, while denying the escalating pain that actual people are enduring, has a way of pissing those people off.

[GSLevel9]

15. it's OBVIOUSLY going to be dissected.

Many parts are wildly popular but the MANDATE for purchase of coverage is wildly UNPOPULAR.


The Congress WILL attempt to repeal parts and pieces of HCR with at least some DEM support and send it to the WH.

[Recursion]

17. Unfortunately, the whole thing falls apart without the mandate

We'll be talking about 4-figure monthly premiums for young single people if insurance companies are required to take all applicants but there is no mandate.

[GSLevel9]

18. which is why the whole thing IS doomed.

a veto-proof Congress is SOOOOOOO rare... they should have pushed through a single payer or public option or medicare buy-in when they had a chance.


Let me tell you what will happen now...

Republican reform means intra-state insurance competition and Canadian import drugs. So at best... prices for insurance may drop 10-20% but people who can't AFFORD insurance (like my bro) still won't have it.

There will be HCR gridlock for 2 more years and if the Pubs win, POOOFFFF gone.

[Recursion]

20. I doubt the GOP can kill the 9.5% of income cap on premiums

Still, unless we make the actual cost of procedures much less than it is, it's going to bankrupt us whether we do it by private insurance or a public system.

[flamingdem]

21. They'll like it much more in 2014 nt

[Jakes Progress]

22. If I were receiving 40 lashes a day

and you passed a bill that cut that to 35 lashes, I would like that bill. But don't tell me to be grateful that I'm getting 35 lashes a day. Don't tell me that I shouldn't push for a cessation of the flogging. Don't tell me I shouldn't wonder why you only cut 5 lashes from my torment.

[emulatorloo]

23. Rec n/t