Washington, Oct 20 (Inditop.com) As President Barack Obama’s administration works hard to push his radical healthcare reforms, a clear majority of American people now support a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers, according to a new poll.
Americans remain sharply divided about both the overall health care package and Obama’s leadership on the issue, reflecting the intense partisan battle that has raged for months over the administration’s top legislative priority, a Washington Post ABC News poll shows.
But majorities now back two key and controversial provisions: both the so-called public option and a new mandate requiring all Americans to carry health insurance.
Independents and senior citizens, two groups crucial to the debate, have warmed to the idea of a public insurance option, and are particularly supportive if it were administered by the states and limited to those without access to affordable private insurance, as stipulated in some versions of the legislation.
But in a sign of the fragile coalition politics that now influence the negotiations in Congress, Obama’s approval ratings on health care are slipping among his fellow Democrats even as they are solidifying among independents and seniors, the Post said.
On the issue that has been a flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now favour a public insurance option, while 40 percent are opposed.
Support has risen since mid-August, when a bare majority, 52 percent, said they favoured it. (In a June Post-ABC poll, support had been at 62 percent.)
If run by the states and available only to those who lack affordable private options, support for a public plan jumps to 76 percent.
Under those circumstances, even a majority of Republicans, 56 percent, would be supportive, about double their level of support without such a limitation.
Fifty-six percent of all Americans favour a provision mandating all Americans to buy insurance, either through their employers or on their own or through eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid.
That number rises to 71 percent should the government provide subsidies for many lower-income Americans to help them purchase insurance. With those qualifiers, a majority of Republicans say they backed the mandate.
The poll was conducted by conventional and cellular telephone from Oct 15-19 among a random sample of 1,004 adults. The margin of sampling error for the full poll is plus or minus three percentage points, the Post said.
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