HAYS, Kan. - In June 2009, a New York Times/CBS News poll reported that "most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector." Half of those questioned said they thought government would be better at providing medical coverage than private insurers, up from 30 percent in polls conducted in 2007. In early summer 2009, 72 percent were in favor of a public option plan.
Mainstream media received some criticism in August for calling attention to the disruptive attendees in some town hall meetings. Critics expressed concern that by photographing and interviewing those that were carrying signs or shouting in meetings, the media may have inadvertently given the impression to readers and viewers that the opponents of health care reform were greater in number than those in favor of reform.
Did the media cause the August down-tick in support through the media's showcasing of that minority of dissidents? Did the media fairly report the news - or can it be held accountable for actually creating the news? Opinion in the coming months is hard to predict, but as the media shifted away from the town halls and back to the core issues and policy facts in the legislation, it appears that the public has renewed its confidence in reform legislation.
An October 2009 study shows that there was a downturn in sentiment for reform during the summer legislative break, but that the numbers in favor of reform have ticked back up to the consistently high pre-summer levels.
The summer downturn in support has now been largely erased.
Fifty-five percent of Americans believe that it is more important than ever to take on health care reform now. Just over half say the country will be better off if reform passes.
According to number recently released, most Americans (53%) continue to believe that real health care reform would be beneficial to the country as a whole. And the recent poll finds that more Americans say that reform would leave their own family better off (41%) than say that it would leave their family worse off (27%).
About half of the public believes that if reform passes, help for the uninsured and changes in insurance market rules would arrive within the first year, years ahead of the timetables contemplated in the legislation.
Roughly half (49%) of Americans think that if reform passes, the uninsured will start getting financial help within the next year. In reality, such help generally would not arrive until 2013.
Similarly, 51 percent of the public thinks that, should reform pass, health insurance companies would have to begin accepting customers with pre-existing health problems within the next year, a timetable not envisioned under any of the leading reform bills.
On the key question of how health reform should be financed, the October tracking poll finds continuing majority support for taxing wealthy households (63%) and health insurance companies that offer the most costly policies (55%).
The survey was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and was conducted October 8 through October 15, 2009, among a nationally representative random sample of 1200 adults ages 18 and older. Telephone interviews conducted by land line (800) and cell phone (400, including 141 who had no land line telephone) were carried out in English and Spanish. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error is higher.
Good rundown.