Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Can't hurry love - Atlantic: "No, health care reform is not very popular." Do you know which group particularly dislikes it? The one that votes.

5 comments:

Plug Doughnut said...

NRO/TownHall.com's hard-right commentator Bruce Bartlett agrees that the polling data for the flawed new health law that was rammed through Congress expose its unpopularity.

Oh, wait. His columns are from 2004, and they're about the prescription drug benefit. You know, the one that's now widely popular among seniors.

http://townhall.com/columnists/BruceBartlett/2004/03/05/medicare_reform_gone_bad
"Every poll taken since the drug bill was enacted shows a distinct lack of enthusiasm for it on the part of the elderly. As John Harwood of the Wall Street Journal observed in a March 3 column, "Seniors have become the law's most conspicuous critics. In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, those 65 and over were the only age group to express plurality opposition. Their support for the Republican Party's handling of the issue, and for Mr. Bush's re-election, declined since last summer."

http://old.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200407210910.asp
"A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in April shows a mere 28 percent overall support for the prescription-drug plan, with just 24 percent of those over age 65 approving. A Gallup poll in March shows support for the prescription-drug bill falling from 52 percent in December to 41 percent among all Americans, and from 46 percent to 36 percent among those over age 65. Even a majority of members of AARP, which strongly supported the new law, are opposed to it."

Where'd those numbers go? They seemed so real!

Eric said...

Hmmm...did the prescription drug benefit include a trillion-dollar cut in Medicare?

Otherwise, they're equal.

Plug Doughnut said...

Hmmm... you mean if the prescription drug benefit HAD included a trillion-dollar cut in Medicare, then its initial approval polling among older voters would never have been as HIGH as 24 percent?

Eric said...

No, I'm saying a program that's a pure benefit has a better chance of gaining approval over time than a deeply flawed one that also depends on significant cuts to another program.

Good thing everybody knew they were lying about those Medicare cuts anyway!

Anonymous said...

Ever check out the polling data on Medicare itself, starting around 1962? Ouch! That bad boy took years and years just to reach 50% approval. And that was decades before there was a TV channel telling seniors that death panels were lying in wait, ooga booga booga.

Meanwhile, the recent AP-GFK-Roper poll shows the highest recorded support to date for the health care reform bill, and decreased opposition.

June 9-14, 2010: 45% favor, 42% oppose
May 7-11, 2010, 39 favor, 46 oppose
April 7-12, 2010: 39 favor, 50 oppose
March 3-8, 2010: 41 favor, 43 oppose
January 12-17, 2010: 42 favor, 42 oppose
December 10-14, 2009: 36 favor, 44 oppose
November 5-9, 2009: 39 favor, 45 oppose
October 1-5, 2009: 40 favor, 40 oppose
Sepember 3-8, 2009: 34 favor, 49 oppose