Why Americans oppose healthcare reform
It’s important to remember that one of the reasons Americans still oppose the healthcare reform bill is that so many people would like to see more government involvement in healthcare. Republicans keep pointing out polls like this one which show Americans opposing reform at record levels, but they fail to mention that the most popular reform ideas were ones that included expansions of public programs, and that many are upset with the current plan precisely because it doesn’t include an expansion to Medicare or a public option.
Plenty of people will only be happy with Medicare-for-all (single payer). Only a small percentage of people in this country think that the free market alone will be able to fix our healthcare system. Taken in that light, the negative polls don’t so much reflect on the success of the GOP’s ideas, but only on the success of its obstruction to ideas that a good portion of Americans would like to see enacted.
Also: Read my endorsement of the healthcare bill here.
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You may be right that people support more government involvement in health care – until it comes time to pay for it, and until their medical care choices are circumscribed by some government agency! Should we listen to the people who would prefer to have somebody else pay for all of their needs?
I think much of the support for the “public option” was because it was an “option.” People like the idea of choice. And, backers presented the public option as serving to bring competition to private insurers. People like the idea of competition too when it drives down costs and decreases profits for the “evil” insurance companies. Strange how the Democrats demonized the insurance companies, yet it is those companies who are some of the primary beneficiaries of the Democrats’ health reform plan.