The CNN headline, as usual, hides the worst news for the Dems. But the first paragraph admits that the congressional Obamacare bills are seriously unpopular:
Only three in ten Americans say they want Congress to pass legislation similar to the health care reform bills that have already been approved by the House and Senate, according to a new national poll.
The actual survey can be read here, and it contains the following news that will scare the bejabbers out of any still-sane Democrat:
Opposition to health care legislation is highest among senior citizens … Twenty-nine percent of people over 65 want Congress to stop working on health care completely, compared to 20 percent of people under the age of 50.
These senior citizens are the same folks who showed for all those town hall meetings last summer. And, as the Dems know, these people vote. This is what’s scaring Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln.
If the White House and the Democrat congressional “leadership” try to jam this thing through, they WILL join the growing ranks of the unemployed.
Comments 7
As you well know most Americans haven’t any idea what’s actually in the reform package because of the lies that have been told. When they are properly informed most are in favor.
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 1:00 pm ¶Hey Marc,
You is right. Us ‘mericans iz 2 dum 2 reed.
Or maybe people are just irritated at the crooked deals that went down. Like the unions and their exemption from the Cadillac tax.
You probably are half-right: Most people likely know little of the details of the House or Senate bills. But you bring zero evidence that the citizens would warm to this legislation if more thoroughly educated on the particulars.
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 2:21 pm ¶I come back after 3 months to find Marc is still throwing softballs. Marc, I read both bills, and followed the ammendment process as thoroughly as the DNC would allow. I know what was in there and in most cases, when a lefty said someone was lying, it was fairly easy to point them to the exact section showing it was not a lie. Line up some lies that the opposition have truly stated and I bet the humble readers could do the same to you.
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 4:42 pm ¶You have to wonder why in states like Texas where a fifth of all kids and massive numbers of adults are uninsured the majority are against reform - as this BBC radio program is titled, it’s ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qgyfc
But as this broadcast also says, its about people not wanting to be preached to with statistics and ‘government knows best’, which is why the folksy nonsense of GW Bush and Reagan played well. The message for Obama is clear - go back to the story telling that won him POTUS and really tell what’s happening to people who will never be able to get insurance under the current system and how they are actually acting against their own interests in favor of the rich. It’s time the gloves came off.
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 5:34 pm ¶Thanks for backing off the “lies” canard Marc.
I can answer the Texas issue by focusing on two key points:
First, the vast majority of the uninsured are hispanic. It also tends to be hispanics that are first or second generation as well as illegal aliens. The culture does not value health care services. They do not go to the doctor, and only use services if someone gets really sick. This is such a key point that some insurance companies have dedicated entire teams to identifying how to communicate the importance of wellness and proper disease management to that community. These same companies also put forth awareness campaigns about specific health concerns of the community. Despite this, the election of benefits by this segment is still a problem. I wrote a group in Texas where the employer paid everything but $10 a month. The employees did not want to sign up because they said it was too expensive. Another problem is that they know how to work the system. If they have insurance, they have to pay co-pays and cost share of premium. If they are uninsured, they get it for free.
Second item is the culture of Texas. Texans tend to be fiercely independent and think people should be free to make their own choices and live with the consequesnces. This has changed a little since they now have so many liberals fleeing their failed liberal states and infecting Texas with their failed liberal philosophy. Texas knows Keynes was a fraud, Obama is a fraud, and Bush was a fraud. Yes, Bush is not well loved in Texas, but look at the two clowns he ran against. Homer Simpson would have been better than either of those two.
Posted 28 Jan 2010 at 11:04 am ¶I’m not backing off the lies - they are obvious. But you can’t get away with ‘If they are uninsured, they get it for free.’ If you’re saying that anyone can walk into any American hospital and get ongoing free care for complex chronic conditions then I will show you a liar. You cannot walk into the MD Anderson in Houston and demand free cancer treatment - they will show you the door.
Harold Pollack, a prof writing in the NYT today, echoes the BBC program perfectly:
‘President Obama needed to tell the story of health care reform and explain the broader purposes to the legislative sausage making…. I’m not yet convinced the president has done the job. In my working day, I encounter many people whose lives are damaged because they lack health insurance coverage: The young man recovering from a gunshot wound, the man with diabetes who lost his sight because he waited for his Medicare eligibility before seeking primary care, the street addict who has no way to pay for drug treatment, the woman whose metastatic breast cancer wasn’t diagnosed until a harrowing trip to the emergency room. These are not isolated horror stories. These are common occurrences in hundreds of low-income communities across the country.’
Posted 28 Jan 2010 at 5:53 pm ¶Marc, once again I ask: please give us those lies.
Also, you know full well that MD Anderson is a specialty hospital, and that would not be where uninsured go to access services even if eventually treated there. A better comparison would be Ben Taub, LBJ, Parkland, UTMB, etc.
With regards to Dr. Pollack, he runs a free clinic so I am sure he sees things from a different perspective. I also see that the examples he cites show more that there are problems in the communities that he serves rather that the insurance system. I mean really. The only one that was truly medical, the breast cancer, could happen regardless of someone’s insurance coverage. I do give the doc respect for focusing on a practice that is often thankless.
Posted 29 Jan 2010 at 1:11 pm ¶Post a Comment