Dodd Discusses Health Care
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 3/22/10
As the national health care reform debate plays out in Washington, a survey released last week by the Quinnipiac Polling Institute merits some attention. The poll mined public opinion on the Governor’s race and U.S. Senate race in Connecticut, but the interesting stuff was buried inside.
Pollster Doug Schwartz also asked Connecticut voters a series of questions about health care, producing a fascinating albeit confusing picture of why the health care reform drama in this nation has been so divisive, emotional, and complex.
It is clear that the often tumultuous debate has boggled the minds of many voters on an issue they do care about, leaving them unsure who to believe, what to hope for, and what to fear.
Schwartz asked voters if they approve or disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling the health care issue. The poll indicates a majority, 52%, don’t like the job the President has done. That sounds solid enough. Yet the Q-Poll’s next question was who do you “trust to do a better job handling health care”, Obama or Republicans in Congress? The answer? A majority, 51% put their trust in the President. Hmmm.
The Quinnipiac Poll went on to ask voters if they approve of the changes to the health care system being proposed in Congress and the largest segment, 48%, said they don’t like what they seen and heard about the process, and when asked if the revisions are just about right, go too far, or not far enough, the largest proportion, 41%, said things have gone too far.
Even more damning for advocates of the Democrat-sponsored health reform package, a significant majority of Connecticut voters view the changes as too complicated, and too expensive.
However, when the Quinnipiac Poll dug deeper into voter’s views, it found that the same folks who have real doubts about the Democrats actions on health care are by no means supporters of the status quo. In fact, they are eager for change.
When asked if government should require companies to offer private health insurance to full-time employees, a whopping 70% of voters said yes. Going further, when asked if the government should require all Americans to have health insurance, either through their employer or another source, 60% said yes.
Connecticut voters also made it clear they don’t like the policy of some insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. A whopping 83% of folks surveyed said the government should ban that practice.
Finally, despite all of their uneasiness about the health care reform debate, state voters (a strong majority of 70%) told the Quinnipiac Poll that Congress should keep trying to pass a health care reform plan until they get it done.
So what’s going on here? Why the conflicted views on health care? “What I read into it is that there are a lot of nuances in the health care debate,” said Schwartz. “Public opinion is complicated on this.”
The Quinnipiac Poll Director believes when voters go negative on the health care issue, they are expressing their feelings about the process of achieving reform—not the need for reform. “They have become disillusioned with the process, they don’t like watching this bill become law,” he said. However, Schwartz said it’s clear voters do want something done on what he called “the main principles” of health care, including fairness to consumers and access to health care for everyone.
Speaking to reporters in Hartford last week, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) conceded his party “mismanaged the marketing of this bill”, that is, Democrats allowed Republicans and lobbying interests opposed to the health care reform push to get the upper hand in the national debate.
Dodd contends without meaningful health care reform, in the next seven to ten years, people in Connecticut could be paying “$25,000 a year, $2000 a month, out of their pockets for (health insurance) premiums.” Said Dodd: “If we don’t get this (legislation) done, then we’re on a track for an economic disaster.”
The Senator, who is not seeking reelection this fall, said Democrats who are trying to get reelected will need to be aggressive in defending the health care reform package if it is signed into law, because the opposition will continue to “demonize” the legislation. That could be a challenge because the measure’s full impact won’t be felt until 2014 when most Americans would be required to carry health insurance.
Dodd said Democrats will be able to show elements opponents used to create fear are not in the bill such as so-called “death panels” to decide whether ailing seniors will be granted approval for various medical procedures. Protections for seniors on prescription drug coverage and language to prevent denial of coverage due to “pre-existing conditions” are in the bill.
When and if the President finally puts his signature on a health care reform bill, perhaps media coverage and the political give-and-take will be about how the package will change American health care, instead of relentless chatter on how the legislation will affect Democrats and Republicans in Congress or President Obama.