| Some more thoughts on the Washington Post/ABC poll results that was released this week...
Okay. We all know the public option is wildly popular.
Fifty-seven percent of those polled favor it, only 40 percent oppose. Support for the public option shoots up to seventy-six percent if states run the public option, and it's available only to those who have no option for private insurance. In that case, even 56 percent of Republicans favor it. Additionally, 51 percent prefer the public option, even if Republicans don't support. A meager 37 percent prefers a bipartisan bill without the public option. Independents prefer a public option to bipartisanship on a 52/32 percent clip.
But what's surprising is when you compare those numbers to approval of healthcare reform overall, in which only 45 percent support it, while 48 percent oppose it. That's right, the public option is +11 over the reform package as a whole! More intriguing, 56 percent of those polled favor an insurance mandate. And if subsidies are provided for "lower-income" consumers, support jumps to 71 percent! (In fact, that jump so violates DC Conventional Wisdom on healthcare reform, that Kevin Drum called out for some help in showing the numbers were the result of how the poll questions were asked.)
Add that data to the low confidence Americans have in the Republican party - only 19 percent said they had "confidence" in the GOP to make "right decisions" for the country - and Obama's approval rating (57 percent), what I take away from this data isn't that Americans are uneasy about healthcare reform from conservative, Teabagger-like concerns, but because the legislation isn't progressive enough.
That, of course, runs counter to how moderate Democrats have reacted to polling data and Teabagger protests. What it's beginning to look like is that the traditional media - and jumpy Dems by proxy - was punked this summer: it wildly inflated Teabagger protests and charted them against declining support for healthcare reform, thinking the two related. Instead, it's looking like Democratic and independent voter defection that's driving support down.
In short, any moderate backing off the public option for fear of a public backlash is making an egregious mistake. |
