Public Pulse

If you had to choose, which do you think is more important for the country to do right now, maintain the tax cuts enacted in recent years or make sure all Americans have access to health care?

Cutting taxes 18%
Access to health insurance 76%

Would you be willing or not willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans have health insurance they can't lose, no matter what?

Willing 60%
Not willing 34%

(If "willing") Would you be willing or not willing to pay $500 a year more in taxes so that all Americans have health insurance they can't lose, no matter what?

Willing 82%
Not willing 16%

More than half (59%) of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health insurance program ; fewer than a third (32%) oppose the idea, according to a new survey published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Voters are increasingly angry about an economy in which wages are flat and costs keep rising. Costs cause the most tension, especially health care. Even as the housing crisis was breaking, a Wall Street Journal poll of adults from July 2007 found that “the cost of health care” ranked as the biggest economic issue (44%), with “jobs going overseas” ranking second (34%).

A January 2008 Washington Post poll of adults identified “health care cost” as the biggest problem (24%) followed immediately by “rising prices overall” (23%), especially gasoline (16%). Tellingly, people ranked “high taxes” near the bottom (12%).

Survey results published in the March 2008 edition of Consumer Rerports indicate six elements Americans consider essential to reforming the nation's health care system. Among 1,200 Americans age 18 and older who responded to the survey, more than 80 percent agreed a reformed health care system should include the following:

1. Coverage for all uninsured children.
2. Protection against financial ruin due to a major illness or accident.
3. The ability to obtain coverage regardless of a pre-existing condition.
4. Coverage that continues even when people are laid off, changing jobs, or starting their own business.
5. Premiums, deductibles, and out-of- pocket expenses that are affordable relative to family income.
6. The ability of people to keep their current health insurance if they choose.

Among those, in a Harvard School of Public Health survey, who say they have at least some understanding of the phrase "socialized medicine" (82%):

• 45% say such a system would be better
• 39% percent say it would be worse
• 12% say they do not know
• 4% say about the same

The poll shows striking differences by party identification.

• 70% of Democrats say that a socialized medical system would be better than our current system.
• 70% of Republicans say that socialized medicine would be worse than our current system.

Independents are more evenly split with 43% saying socialized medicine would be better and 38% worse.

January 28, 2008
JON KINGSDALE is a good man playing a bad hand dealt him by the Massachusetts Legislature and the Bush administration.
Kingsdale heads the Commonwealth Connector, created in 2006 by then-Governor Mitt Romney and the Legislature, as part of an effort to cover most of the state's uninsured.

In a poll conducted by the Commonwealth Fund nearly 88 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of Republicans, and 79 percent of Independents would support an employer "play or pay" requirement. The new survey also found that a wide majority of Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters believe that health insurance costs should be shared by individuals, employers, and the government.

This December 2007 tracking poll finds finds that second to the issue of the war in Iraq (35%) health care (30%) is the most important issue to Americans in this upcoming presidential election. It is followed by the economy (21%) and immigration (17%).

52% say they are “very concerned” about potential family health care expenses. 37% say they are “somewhat concerned.”

81% of Americans are not happy with health care costs. 59% say they are “dissatisfied” with the health care costs in the United States. An additional 22% say they are “somewhat dissatisfied.”