Health Care That Works
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
NYT
Here’s a paradox.
Health care reform may be defeated this year in part because so many Americans believe the government can’t do anything right and fear that a doctor will come to resemble an I.R.S. agent with a scalpel. Yet the part of America’s health care system that consumers like best is the government-run part.
Fifty-six to 60 percent of people in government-run Medicare rate it a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. In contrast, only 40 percent of those enrolled in private insurance rank their plans that high.
Multiple surveys back that up. For example, 68 percent of those in Medicare feel that their own interests are the priority, compared with only 48 percent of those enrolled in private insurance.
(Continued here. The following is the item referenced in Kristof's piece:)
Who's Afraid Of Public Insurance?
Health Care Consumers Give Medicare Higher Marks Than Private Plans
by Mark Blumenthal
National Journal
Monday, June 29, 2009
Americans "are deathly afraid that a government takeover will lower their quality of care." So writes Republican pollster Frank Luntz in a widely circulated set of talking points on how to stop a "government takeover" of health care.
Yet in summing up recent survey results, the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly and Jon Cohen write that poll questions "that equate the public option approach with the popular, patient-friendly Medicare system tend to get high approval, as do ones that emphasize the prospect of more choices."
Indeed, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found 62 percent of Americans expressing support for "having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans." Other pollsters describing the public option as "government administered" and "similar to Medicare" gauged even more positive reactions: 67 percent in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll in April and 72 percent in the most recent CBS News/New York Times poll.
(More here.)
NYT
Here’s a paradox.
Health care reform may be defeated this year in part because so many Americans believe the government can’t do anything right and fear that a doctor will come to resemble an I.R.S. agent with a scalpel. Yet the part of America’s health care system that consumers like best is the government-run part.
Fifty-six to 60 percent of people in government-run Medicare rate it a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. In contrast, only 40 percent of those enrolled in private insurance rank their plans that high.
Multiple surveys back that up. For example, 68 percent of those in Medicare feel that their own interests are the priority, compared with only 48 percent of those enrolled in private insurance.
(Continued here. The following is the item referenced in Kristof's piece:)
Who's Afraid Of Public Insurance?
Health Care Consumers Give Medicare Higher Marks Than Private Plans
by Mark Blumenthal
National Journal
Monday, June 29, 2009
Americans "are deathly afraid that a government takeover will lower their quality of care." So writes Republican pollster Frank Luntz in a widely circulated set of talking points on how to stop a "government takeover" of health care.
Yet in summing up recent survey results, the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly and Jon Cohen write that poll questions "that equate the public option approach with the popular, patient-friendly Medicare system tend to get high approval, as do ones that emphasize the prospect of more choices."
Indeed, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found 62 percent of Americans expressing support for "having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans." Other pollsters describing the public option as "government administered" and "similar to Medicare" gauged even more positive reactions: 67 percent in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll in April and 72 percent in the most recent CBS News/New York Times poll.
(More here.)
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