CNN Poll: Health care provisions popular but overall bills unpopular
Washington (CNN) - Although the overall health care reform bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate are unpopular, many of the provisions in the existing bills are extremely popular, even among Republicans, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that only a quarter of the public want Congress to stop all work on health care, with nearly three quarters saying lawmakers should pass some kind of reform.
Twenty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with 48 percent saying lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill and a quarter saying Congress should stop all work on health care reform.
"Many provisions of those bills are popular, particularly restrictions on health insurance companies," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Roughly 6 in 10 would like a bill that prevents insurers from dropping people who become seriously ill or denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Seven in 10 favor requiring large and mid-sized companies to provide health insurance to their employees. Those proposals are popular among Republicans as well as Independents and Democrats. A cap on medical malpractice awards – something on the GOP's wish list that is not in the current legislation – is also popular."
According to the survey, Americans are split on a public option, and they don't like the idea of requiring everyone in the U.S. to have health insurance. The poll's release comes one day before a critical televised health care summit hosted by President Obama that will include top Congressional Democrats and Republicans.
The survey indicates nearly half of all Democrats say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with nearly 4 in 10 Democrats saying Congress should start from scratch and just 1 in 10 saying lawmakers should stop all work on health care.
A majority of Republicans questioned, 54 percent, want Congress to start from scratch, with just under 4 in 10 saying lawmakers should halt work on health care reform and just 6 percent saying Congress should pass into law the current legislation.
Fifty-two percent of Independents want Congress to start work on a new bill, with 27 percent saying lawmakers should stop all work, and 18 percent saying that the current legislation should be passed into law.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.
Health care overhaul is badly needed, in the COST of service. But to require all to carry insurance is crazy. Figure it out. Assume the average income is $30,000 gross and the the monthly health care insurance is $700. What does that leave for ALL the other family needs? $21,600. Now there are taxes, housing, food, and etc. What is wrong with this PICTURE? Insurance companies have become greedy. And our federal reps.???? They have great benefits-–what do they care? Let them be middle America and see. They haven't a clue.
This proves to me that such polls should have been taken during August and other months when the Tea Party took over the media's attention and wouldn't go away.
Because Americans are stupid, and believe whatever their TV tells them to believe. Have a nice day, consumerbots!
After Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, on Sept 11, we went to war and spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring that this would not happen again. Yet every two months, that many people die because of our failure to provide universal insurance — and yet many members of the GOP want us to do nothing?
More great work from CNN's progressive pollsters! Those focus grouped questions make it next to impossible to see that only 24% of America supports ObamaCare as written..
This just goes to show you how well the republican propaganda machine works – or just how gullible Americans are for being against a health bill but agreeing with many or most of the provisions in it.
Here's an idea. How about dropping the rule that health insurance is required for everyone. BUT if you opt to not get insurance and then need medical care...you're out of luck. NO medical care for you unless you have the money to pay for it. The insured should not be forced to pay higher prices to make up for your unpaid bills.
Americans don't seem to understand that you can't force insurance companies to deny pre-existing conditions with out requiring that everyone by insurance. If we did that, everyone would wait until they got sick to get insurance and it would raise the rates of people who have insurance. Ending Recession and the denial of those that have pre-existing conditions is SO IMPORTANT! It is worth it to have a mandate to address those problems.
I support tort reform, but am opposed to a blanket ceiling on payments, for example, should doctors remove a good leg, a good eye, or a good kidney, etc., a limit of only $250,000 would be insufficient. Unfortunately, most who are pushing for reform take the superficial view.
"You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."-Zig Ziglar
Star over people, you're wasting time.
Start over from scratch???? Talk about wasteful spending!!
Starting over would be a great example of wasteful spending and wasted time. There's no reason to start over when MANY of the agreed upon elements are already there. Move ahead, get a decent start on a larger reform and add in elements each year as people begin to see what the benefits are.
They need to start over! What is amazing is that most of these so-called provisions do not start for close to 8 years! The taxes, however, will start right away. How is this going to benefit anyone! Why is this Government not listening to America?
I believe in the public option and universal coverage. Anything less is a failure. If Bush could get tax cuts for the rich and fund two senseless wars from the Democrats, why can't Obama get these?
It does not surprise me that many Americans would not favor these. We are a country that seems to think that others are not supposed to have the same things that we as indivduals feel entitled.
Old foggies in the Deomcrat Party need to get moving on healthcare reform, gay marrige, student loan reforms or we will lose young voters.