It appears the tide has finally turned against President Obama in the public relations war for massive government overhaul of the health care system. An August 5 Quinnipiac University National Poll (with a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points), shows a significant shift in public opinion against health care reform as support for Obama’s health care plan has hit a new low.
Amidst troubling economic times and the worrisome unemployment rate, surprisingly, Americans have become significantly more risk-adverse to a public plan. When asked whether a massive reform should be enacted “if it adds significantly to the federal budget deficit,” the voters disagreed by a 20-point margin (57-percent vs. 37-percent).
Furthermore, in spite of the famous rhetoric and tag-line Obama and many Democrats have oft resorted to—where the $1.5 trillion-plus is far safer than “the cost of doing nothing at all,” Quinnipiac found respondents disagreed with that statement also by a 20-point margin (55 vs. 35 percent).
Another troubling sign for “Obamacare” is the approval amongst two key groups Democrats and Obama can traditionally rely on: the youth vote and low-income voters.
July’s Quinnipiac poll found a 54-35 percent approval for Obama’s handling of health care amongst the 18 to 34 year-old demographic, whereas it has now swung to a 48-44 percent disapproval, and swung from a 49-37 percent approval by low-income voters, to a 47-43 disapproval.
The July poll by Quinnipiac also showed voter approval and satisfaction for Obama’s handling of health care leading by 4-point margin. In just over a month, there has been a 17-point shift, as voters now disapprove Obama’s performance by a 52-39 percent margin.
“Americans are more willing to scrap a health care overhaul than they are to increase the deficit in order to produce such legislation,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in the August 5th press conference at National Press Club. “That’s a bad omen for the White House and Congressional leadership as they try to sell their plan to the country this month before the vote counting gets serious on Capitol Hill in September.”
By all accounts, free-market advocates and the Republican Party have been tremendously successful in their effort to educate the public about the inherent flaws and shortcomings of socialized medicine.
When individuals were asked if “they would rather purchase health insurance from a private sector company or a government run plan,” private insurance was favored 61 to 25 percent (Independents in the poll favored the private sector 63 to 21 percent).
“The key to this political battle is independent voters—the key to most elections,” Brown stated. “These are the voters who broke strongly for the President last November and who were in his corner during the first months of his administration.”
Independents opposed compulsory health insurance (72 to 24 percent); believed Obama’s plan would increase their health costs (by a 28-point margin), do more harm than help the economy (47 to 26-percent), and increase taxes (73 to 4 percent).
Asked whether President Obama would keep his promise regarding the true cost and impact of the deficit, Democrats believed the President would not, by a 7-point margin, while Independents stated he would not in a 60-point margin (77 to 17 percent).
Anthony Kang is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
