WASHINGTON (CNN) – As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushes for a health care reform bill that includes a public option, national polling suggests a rise in support among Americans for a government-financed plan that would compete with private insurance.
According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday, 48 percent of those questioned favor a public option, with 42 percent opposed to such a plan. That's a 10-point swing from August when 47 percent were opposed and 43 percent in favor.
The NBC/WSJ survey joins two polls released last week, CNN/Opinion Research Corporation and ABC/Washington Post, that also indicated a jump in public support for a government option.
"The latest CNN poll found that support for the public option grew most among independents, who were essentially split on that proposal in August but supported it by a 61 percent to 38 percent margin in October," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But one group - senior citizens - still oppose a public option proposal, and their opposition has barely budged between the summer and fall."
The NBC/WSJ survey suggests that more than seven in 10 Americans feel it's important to give people a choice of a public option, with less than one in four saying it was not that important or not important at all.
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted October 22-25. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @psteinhausercnn
From CNN Politics
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Have the seniors held their rally yet......I don't think this is so much support going forward as much as it is people just totattly confused of what the heck they are doing in Washington.....the ones voting have no real idea of what they are voting for...very wavering which is a dangerous tide to be on.
I definitely support a public option. I cannot even afford the employer-provided health insurance that is available to me because I work for a small employer where the plan has had to cover some very sick individuals and high level users. Therefore, the premiums are sky high. It gets to a point where you do not get what you pay for.
Who is fixing these numbers? An overwhelming majority of Americans want a public option. We don't need Sen. Snowe or any republican support. We tried to be bi-partisan, and that didn't work.
...but polls also show a further drop in support for government healthcare (in the first place). How do you reconcile these two conflicting poll results???
Hopefully, some of you have received your premium notice for 2010. Ours went up from a $750 hospital deductible to a 1,680 deductible. Prescription drugs also went way up. Still against the Public Option???????
you are a lieing news network. most oppose the government option. look on aol and fox news. stop lieing to people.
Oh pretty pretty please all you Democrats in areas where there is a majority of great Americans (non blue areas), please buy into these liberal lie tainted fantasy based polls. Please go and pass the public option, ensure that the best of America will win elections for decades, align yourselves completely with the left wing extremists in the White House, House, and Senate, go for it. Yeah, Dem, don't you know all Americans just love Chavez, and we all idolize Karl Marx, Lenin, and Mao like everyone who works out of 1600. I mean a majority of the CNN ticker does, and this is just a great snap shot of mainstream America.
When I read these current poll results, I wonder how much doom-saying blather about nothing has passed in and out of the viewing public's ears sprung from the mouths of your endlessly configured and reconfigured panels of pundits since the August polls. Oh the joyful anticipation of all the babel yet to come!
Now that the way all of this works is becoming more clear and the lobbyist have been somewhat neutralized more people are on board. I think senior citizens are more or less scared rather than misinformed.
I am glad to see the Dems handling their business. I am also glad that they grew a backbone over the last few years. After the dark ages of Bush, it is like a breath of fresh air to see some good actually get done.
The beauty of it is that it is already a done deal. I have noticed that a lot of Republicans have cried that using reconciliation is not playing by the rules. I just want to remind them however that if we played by the rules Al Gore would have been president.
Meanwhile, the country's ability to pay the $900 billion price tag continues to deteriorate...
Do any of these polls ever bring up the cost? Of course not...most people don't know how to think about $900 billion. The problem is, the people they trust to be watching and controlling this care more about their own political agenda than The US Treasury.
But one group – senior citizens that becasue they are too old to understand the bill and very easy to scare so that why the Repubicans pick them to scare. GOP=TALIBAN OF THIS COUNTRY.
So... seniors who already benefit from a single-payer health care system want to deny that very benefit to other Americans?
Can we get a public option and tort reform?
The momentum is building...finally the majority will get their voices heard and the Democrats will unite behind the public option. Olympia Snowe is too wishy-washy and can't make-up her mind...forget about the Maine senators, we don't need them anyways.
Perhaps the support for a public option is somewhere out there, but it sure doesn't come from me. Like most folks, I support health care reform via significant tort reform, interstate marketing of health insurance, cutting waste and fraud, etc. That's fine. However, I don't want a socialistic type public option as part of health care reform.
Also, to say the government option would compete with the private health care sector is like saying a mom-and-pop store can compete with Wal-Mart. Ain't gonna happen. Mom-and-pop (private health care) will be driven out of business and Wal-Mart (big government) will own the entire health care territory.
That is soooooo wrong!
Sure senior citizens oppose public option. They are an entitlement group. Some have never worked but get medicare and social security
(stay at home moms can you hear me?).
I am old enough to remember before our Country went to Medicare, a health program paid for by the public, my dad paid for 38 years for a mv accident I had when I was just 5. Today that would have been looked after by the Country. Our family had 11 members and no health insurance at the time. We are and have been thankful all the days of our life for the health care system our Country currently has. No it is not a perfect system, but then again no system is. We do have some wait times for elective surgury, but necessary surgury is usually very timely. Regardless the system looks after the people. It is worth every tax dollar we pay into the system and some of that through a 'sales tax'. So be it.
It has always been PUBLIC support for the PUBLIC OPTION – it just was not televised....
The doggone TEA PARTIERS and The Party of NO Town Hall Meetings DROWNED it out!!!
NOW you have the news STRAIGHT!!!
Why support a option that is not for all americans that we all have to pay for this is not real choice and another thing this plan does not go into effect untill 2013 but we have to start paying high taxes right now.
Please american people read this plan it's terrible,also I voted for President Obama so don't think I'm a lobbyist.
this is a bogus bill from the get go.. it does not cut cost,, it has no tort reform,,, it is a half ass effort.. it has little if no real change in care,, call it like it is ,,,, a half ass bill....and a sad joke on the american tax payer....
If I were polled by CNN, this Independent has been supporting the Public Option all the way.
Our seniors have been brainwashed by the private insurance companies for a long time and they are the majority viewers of TV ads. where American Health Insurance Plans spent millions of dollars to scare seniors with Medicare waste cuts.
But the younger generation needs the Public Option to control health care costs and cover everyone. However, there should be no state opt-out of the Public Option, IF we will mandate health insurance on everyone. With the Public Option, we can achieve affordability.
"But one group – senior citizens – still oppose a public option proposal, and their opposition has barely budged between the summer and fall."
Then I hope these people are saying no to Social Security and Medicare.
The poll numbers for this lousy plan haven't changed in months. People don't want Obama and the idiots in Congress tinkering with their health care. What doesn't he understand about that? Get a clue, Obama.
joe limberman needs to pay attention to what americans want
Hello Out there: Can we just get this done. People are dieing out here and there are two wars to be concerned about. Stop thinking of your power, money and politics and get some health care. We need to move on.
People have stopped lisyening to the "fear mongering" rush-beck-licans and started thinking for themselves.
lol in what poll?! Hey cnn you have to poll independents and republicans who live outside of new york city and san fran. nice try though. Americans are by far not in favor of socialized medicine. The tea party has shown you that. aint gonna happen libs! not on our watch! take your failed marxist ideas and leader and go play crazy somewhere else. cuba perhaps
And what will the cost of this new proposal be? Without the public option the cost was just short of one trillion dollars. Now with the new expanded version what has happened to the costs?
No one is opposed to health care reform, what we do not like is the costs, it will be the minority taxpayer of this nation left to pay for these pipe dreams.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
......Abraham Lincoln
It appears that the smoke from all that rhetoric from Right wingers against the Public Option is now clearing and americcans are beginning to see the merit behind a Public Option competing with Private Insurers. Also lack of trust in Private Insurers to do right for people is a factor in this. The argument that government run healthcare will be inefficient is also losing the steam as Medicare, Veterns care are all government run healthcares and they are running satisfatorily for the participants.
All Democrats contact your Senators and demand that Lieberman the independent of Ct. be striped of all his chairmanships and they be given to a true Democrat.
Let Lieberman caucus with the republicans.
exactly who are you polling; the illiterate, uneducated, sitting with their hand out for a free ride? Why do these polls somehow never make it to where the real people live?
Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.–Victor Hugo, or was it Voltaire ?
Americans are starting to think!!
Why would the American media, Congress, or anyone think otherwise and why do they need a poll to figure this one out. Only the wealthy Wall Streeters and privileged Americans can afford Healthcare and the cadillac policies. The rest of America either has no insurance or just the basics and can't afford it. They are unemployed or working menial jobs.
And to the members of both houses of Congress who are against the Public Option, give up your options you receive as members of Congress and let a catostropic medical procedure wipe you out, and see if you change your tunes. Oh, I forgot, many of you are skimming these companies of $billions so you don't have to worry, do you?
Public option = more welfare courtesy of the taxpayers. Find a better way.
There are some polls out there that have as much as 57% in favor, so public support for a public option is nothing new. And for the right wing yokels to keep blathering that "a vast majority of Americans oppose the public option" is ludicrous, self-serving and a lie. What are the 48 to 57 percent who support it? Canadians? The truth is that their side is, as usual, in the minority but they are noisy so they THINK they have a corner on opinion. They're wrong.
Hasn't this been the case this whole year and last November. The American people spoke and voted for change. Yet special interest, Republicans in congress and the small group of neo-cons continue to obtruct what the majority voted for.
It is time to pass healthcare reform with or without Republican support!!
Give me a choice! Stop forcing me to choose employers to choose which health care coverage I want... it's hard enough to find an employer.
I hope Lieberman is not re-elected. Let the insurance company hire him.
A public option would help people that can't afford insurance.Hopefully it would help keep the cost down on insurance premium's.
Good. People are starting to wise up.
I am from VA and I think its great people are finally getting on board with the public option! Everyone needs to come to there senses and realize this will help and even if it doesn't help you directly it may help your friend or neighbor... The bottom line is we need to think of others not just ourselvesm
Many of those opposing a public plan option are in a state of confusion thanks to the GOP and its townhall mobsters. PPO is the only way to go......Even if it allows states to 'opt out' if they so choose, I'd like to see which states dare to not offer it.......
............
This is not a surprise.
The public wants competition.
It's only the GOP and the MSM
that have missed the story.
And why isn't this played bigger on
the broadcast and on the website?
........
With the continuing high cost of medical care, even just an office visit, it's time for a public option. If the insurance want to keep profits up and costs to the public down, just eliminate those high paid executive salaries to a more realistic amount and cut down on the size of commissions to sales people.
That's Really Great News For The Democrats Who've Been Fighting For The Public Option For So Long. However, You've Still Got People Undermining The President And Congress Such As Joe Lieberman, Kent Conrad, And Mary Landrieu.
Now that support for the public option.... among the citizenry, is really on the rise, I find it really difficut to understand how any in Congress can vote against it... – don't these people know what's going on outside their hallowed halls? CNN 67%... NBC 7 out of 10 = 70%.
It's about time the public option is seriously considered. Make the states vote it down, and then they can be voted out of office.
I am very much in favor of a public option. My only concern is the treatment of illegal/undocumented residents. All should be treated but anyone here illegally should, after treatment, be arrested and deported!
This is why that traitor Lieberman will vote no.
Here come the GOP's armchair statisticians, whining that a poll conducted by the WSJ (of all things) is somehow slanted towards the liberal agenda. Aaaaaah, their tears taste so sweet....
As for the elderly...well, that's just another battle with irony that the GOP is losing: they claim it's the "socialist" liberals who don't care about the elderly because we want to have a public option, but it's really them, because they've seen fit to lie and mislead the elderly in order to scare them half to death. Kudos, you self-centered political apes.
Let the Senators and Congressmen give up their healthcare and purchase just as American citizens. They should not have any special considerations for previous conditions or anything else. Let them pay what Americans pay and this will save taxpayers money also.
Let's pass health-care reform with a majority-supported public option. Please heed the will of the American people, Sen. Lieberman.
They must not be talking to people like me. NO PUBLIC OPTION. We CANNOT AFFORD IT.
I want and need the public option, insurance companies need to be held accountable for their high costs and lack of coverage.
They hold lives in their hands, and when it comes to you or the money they can make, you can bet, the money is going to win hands down. Be sides if you die, then they do not have to pay any more, at all
with dana milbank missing the mark (again) and noones favorite repuglican in faux-dem clothes, liberman forever cementing himself as a later-day judas (when'll they boot the loser from their caucus?),
olympia acting somebody died and appointed her queen and the party of no: nihlists from mcconnell to grassley still threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue (as if anyone cares) it appears that maybe, just maybe, the will of the people may win out over insurance companies, drug makers, for-profit hospitals and greedy, self-serving repuglican crooks despite all their money, lobbyists and their very own megaphone of illiteracy, known to some as fox "news".
Your polls mean nothing! All polls, the ones that make me feel good and the ones that make me feel bad, have no value or worth in news anymore. Polls are just lame excuses for journalism. Polls are useless fodder.
Ever since Bush stole the first election, polls mean nothing
The more people listen to reason, the less they will oppose a public option.
I am a little concerned though by our seniors who already enjoy a public option, Medicare, still tend not to express their support for such a public option for everyone. I have great respect for my elders, so I do not think they do not understand, they are smart and many are wise.
And, I get that earlier generations have tended to be more "fiscally liberal" [i.e. Republican] and some may even still believe that Reaganomics was a good thing despite its deregulation being the cause of the current fiscal crisis.
But, to hold this "I got mine...every crumb for himself!" attitude is just unconscionable.
We are talking a TRILLION dollars!!? Does this mean nothing to anybody? Where is this money coming from? Oh yeah, us.
This story is laughable. No other poll says this. Could this be a news organization pllaying ball to gain favor with the white house?
Look at what haapened to the last news station that challenged this administration. It is either play ball or "look out".
I don't care if the PUBLIC OPTION is there or not, as long as my TAXES and FEES don't go up.
BUT WAIT, my TAXES and FEES are going up to support this Public Option crap.
The ONLY people who want Public Option is those who want others (like me) to pay for their share, well, too bad. I'm not. I'll cheat on my taxes before I pay for this.
Everyone should have every choice available when it comes to life's critical issues. Count me in for public option support. Have already contacted my senators and representative voicing my health care concerns.
Quite obviously you've read no part of any of the bills. I have been waiting for Harry Reid's bill to be posted on-line. I read the Baucus Mark Up and Changes. I haven't seen 1,000 pages yet, and neither have you. The damage that these bills do to young people is impossible to calculate! You don't get something for nothing, believe me!
They will vote at their own peril and it will be costly here in the Red States.
Oh I forgot the insurance companies had a 2.2% profit margin. This is less than grocery stores and tuperware companies. So please lets get off the evil insurance companies.
Again, you don't understand that medicare capped payments to providers shifts costs to other insurers and you. What providers can't get medicare / medicaid to pay, you pay, if you have insurance!. That is what will happen with a public option. Learn a little something.
No one I know thinks it's a good idea, nor do they understand how the government intends to pay for any of it without further damaging the economy and the quality of the healthcare we receive. The majority of those clamoring for a public option, and indeed for government control of healthcare haven't got sense enough to come in out of the rain, much less give much thought to the consequences of such massive government intervention. The rest are merely delusional.
How convenient, the government public relations arm released new polls that just happen to favor healthcare. ABC, NBC, CNN and one asks why can you not trust the media. What a joke. Trying to sell another pig in the polk.
What happened to Social Security and Welfare? What about the United States Postal Service,? Did someone fix those things so they are not losing millions of dollars? If they did fix those things then maybe we should have a puplic option. Maybe the government is a better curator of our money than we thought.
Because Obama claims that government run health care will not lose taxpayer dollars and nobody will have to wait for their free sleep studies because there will be plenty of sleep technicians and specialists to cover everyone who snores, it has to be true. Right?
The people commenting that their "taxes and fees" will go up need to provide some ...... FACTS!
How will YOUR taxes go up because of a Public Option????
Educate yourselves on WHAT a Public Option IS before complaining!
Public Option will ensure competition! More competition........ the LESS we pay in fees and premiums!
45,000 AMERICANS DIE EVERY YEAR BECAUSE THEY LACK HEALTHCARE AND THE .... REPUBLICANS..... DO NOT CARE!
Sometimes I wonder what so called republicans want! really! I wish I had a truth pill... make a republican have it, truth will be open for telling just for an hour... I'll ask only one question... Why do you hate poor people? Pro-life, anti-public option, anti-wellfare all of them are tring to make people's life a bit easier when people need help most. You guys are the biggest thumper of the war! What happened to Thou shall not kill? Does republicans go to churches? Jesus died to make people's life better... and you guys can not morally suporrt a sick man to go to doctor? What a republican really wants?
wow! listen to all the threats against lieberman. he put america above the party. he is a hero and you libs need to suck on it. we are in a capitalist democracy and aint no low life community organizer is gonna change that. you have failed obama has failed, america has won.
We need Public Option to control the out of control premiums by private insurance companies with the greedy CEOs.
Funding for the public option will come from money taken from Medicare.
So really, Pelosi, Reid and Obama are taking medicare money from seniors and giving it to immigrants (mostly low skilled) and younger people (who don't want to buy insurance).
Sounds fair? No, but it is an accurate account of what the Obama plan really is.
Public Option AND Tort Reform. WIN WIN for the Public! Lose Lose for the professional coporate lackeys (Republicans) and professional ambulance chasers lapdogs (Democrats)
To anyone who says they can not afford the public option, this is my response–you must have very good insurance and it does not cost you much, therefore, you could give a crap about anyone who may not be as fortunate as you.
Try thinking about someone besides yourself for a change. The shoe might be on your foot. So try putting other, at least up you, if you can
Liberman has turned to the GOP to filibuster the healthcare with public option in it or not.. Insurance companies must be paying him to vote against so they are protected and still continue raising rates on every American's premiums and the number of uninsured will continue to rise so Health Care Industry continues to satisfy Wallstreet and shareholders of the HealthCare Industry.
I'll be sure to re-consider my opposition to the public option as my pregnant wife and two sons are waiting in line with thousands of other people this weekend waiting for a vaccination that we'll probably not be able to get. Hmmmm . . . is this what I want when I have a broken arm, too? Health and Human Services has completely dropped the ball on the H1N1 vaccinations, as large bureaucratic agencies often do. Ok, so let's create another one and give it a lot of control. Some change needs to happen, but create another pork-laden, inefficient, black hole government agency, no thanks.
I support the Public Option..the PUBLIC should PAY THEIR OWN WAY! I am tired of those who refuse to work, who refuse to better themselves, who keep having kids out of wedlock, who have the "entitlement" attitude that has been bred into them since the days of the so-called "Great Society" of LBJ's , and yet they keep on wanting MORE....and the Democrats gloss this over with a pathetic ploy to get more votes by "giving" the people who support them "free" healthcare...while those of us who DID do our best, worked hard, and continue to do our best are expected to pay their costs? WHEN will all the Koolaid drinkers open their eyes and see what is REALLY up with this? This is exactly what Obama and his cronies want...income redistribution....no wait..thats NOT Socialist, is it?
There is no reason why we don’t have a free health care system for everyone. The rich is only complaining about it so we should have a universal health care system for everyone. The people in Florida have a right to protest and if I have to be the one to make it nationwide I will. The insurance company is a crock who is only for the rich. Why can’t we be more like France with a universal health care system? Do I have to run for president to make this happen, tell that monkey to do something right and stop jerking off. I was all for Obama in the begging, but apparently he just like every other Politian and only cares about his money.
One of the things that really bothers me about the opposition against the Public Option, is that those who oppose like to scream and shout and how their moral outrage (my Dad is one them) meanwhile he and many others are going broke because of their health problems.
I know good and well that many of these noisy opposers who are losing their shirts are secretly crossing their nasty little fingers that this public option passes.
For those of you who want a "public option", who is paying for it? There is no way that Medicare cuts are going to cover the price of this plan. Medicare is about to go broke as it is.
I think everyone deserves health care, these plans are not for health care, they are more about taking over insurance. The gov't has not done such a great job with Social Security, Post Office, etc..... how are they going to do right by us on this?????