The Wall Street Journal reviews the findings of its latest WSJ/NBC poll and concludes: “Support Slips for Health Plan.”
The poll shows cause for alarm for the White House: 46 percent of people now disapprove of Obama’s handling of health care reform, compared to only 41 percent who approve. But the poll does not actually indicate that support for health care reform is slipping.
When read the details of Obama’s plan, 56 percent of respondents answer that they favor the plan. This is the same exact percentage of people who, once provided with the details, said they support the plan in April’s WSJ/NBC poll. Support for Obama’s health care plan has remained constant over the past three months.
Americans like Obama’s plan but not what they’re hearing. Republicans are still as effective as ever at manipulating opinion with spin and misinformation. When told that Obama’s health care plan will bankrupt the nation in order to pay for the euthanasia of their grandparents, Americans understandably have doubts about reform. But when informed of the actual details of Obama’s plans, Americans still support it.
Nate Silver was dead-on in his assessment yesterday that declining support for health care reform can be attributed to the fact that the White House and Congressional Democrats have done a terrible job selling it.
To paraphrase Nate, Democrats have done little to ensure that voters know what changes reform would bring or that the insurance companies are ripping them off; that reform would lower costs, that it would help everyone, or that our current health care system is already on track to bankrupt the country.
And stumping the President out to explain to voters what he wants a health care bill to look like - when it doesn’t resemble the insurance-friendly legislation he’s allowed Sen. Max Baucus to create - isn’t a sound strategy. Especially when there are multiple competing plans, none of which have been crowned victor.
When Republicans say that the health care bill is a failure and needs to be rewritten, they’re referring to one bill only because it’s easy to beat up on a clearly defined enemy. Over the recess, Democrats need to regroup and settle on one plan, one that scores well in public opinion polls. Why not Obama’s plan?
12 Comments until now.
Obama does not have a health care plan if he has one where can I read it? He does not even know what is in this plan it is a goverment take over of health care just look what the goverment run Medicare & Medicad programs have turned into and you want him to take over health care completely. Any time you hear I am from the goverment and I am here to help you…run like hell. I want my doctor to make the decisions on my health care not the goverment.
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