Most Americans Support Public Health Care Option, Poll Finds

By Jonathan D. Salant

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sixty-nine percent of Americans support creation of a government-run health plan to compete with private insurance companies, a new poll found.

In addition, 52 percent of those surveyed by Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University said such a plan would keep the private insurance companies honest. Thirty-two percent disagreed. Twenty-six percent said they opposed a government-run insurance program. Some health-care overhaul plans proposed by Democrats in Congress would include a government-run plan, while Republicans are leading the fight against such a program.

Even though most of those polled backed creation of a government plan, 53 percent said they would prefer to buy private health insurance, compared with 28 percent who would join a government health plan, according to the poll. Eighty- five percent of those who have insurance said they were satisfied.

“American voters want their fellow countrymen to have the option of a public plan, but don’t want a public plan for themselves because they are satisfied personally with their health care,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s polling institute.

The poll of 3,063 adults, taken June 23-29, showed strong support for President Barack Obama’s efforts to overhaul health care. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

By a margin of 53 percent to 33 percent, respondents said they trusted Obama over congressional Republicans to handle health care.

Medical Malpractice

Republicans, in opposing a government insurance plan, are pushing instead to limit the financial damages that people injured by medical malpractice can collect.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, called Democratic proposals “a government takeover of our health care system.”

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, supports a public option.

“We want to keep everyone honest and competition is the best way to accomplish that goal,” Waxman said.

Respondents said, by a 73 percent to 24 percent margin, that companies should help pay for health insurance for their employees. They supported, by 55 percent to 40 percent, Obama’s proposal to help pay for overhauling health care by limiting tax deductions for Americans earning more than $250,000 a year.

Forty-nine percent of those polled said they would be willing to pay more for health care compared with 45 percent who wouldn’t, though 72 percent of the respondents said they wouldn’t go higher than $500 a year. And by a margin of 63 percent to 30 percent, they opposed a tax on their health benefits.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 1, 2009 06:00 EDT

		Email this article Printer friendly format