Survey: The public still supports healthcare reform

According to the July Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, the public still supports taking action on health reform, though criticism and doubts are surfacing.

"The public wants help with their healthcare bills and supports health reform, but the hotter the debate and the longer it lasts, the more anxious the public will become," said Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman.

As has been the case over the past 10 months, a majority of the American people (56 percent) believe health reform is more important than ever, despite the country's economic problems. And by a 2-to-1 margin (51 percent vs. 23 percent), those surveyed believe the country will be better off rather than worse off if Congress and the president enact health reform.

More Americans think they and their families will be better off (39 percent) than worse off (21 percent) if legislation passes, with 32 percent believing it will make no difference for them or their families.

But with health reform moving from the abstract to concrete legislative proposals, criticisms made during the policy debate are having an impact. A larger share of the public is worried that Congress and the president will pass a bill that’s bad for their family (54 percent) than are worried that healthcare reform will not happen this year (39 percent).

While a majority of the public favors healthcare reform now, that number is down 5 percent since June (from 61 percent to 56 percent). Those who feel healthcare reform will make things worse for their own families has doubled since February (from 11 percent to 21 percent), as has the proportion who say the country would be worse off if healthcare reform passed (from 12 percent to 23 percent).

TRhere is also a weakeneing of support for specific proposals to cover the uninsured. For example, support for an employer mandate fell from 69 percent to 64 percent since June, and those who "strongly" favor the idea fell from 42 percent to 29 percent.

Financing health reform is front and center in the debate. Roughly half of those surveyed are willing to pay more for expanding health coverage – up 10 percent from June. And some revenue measures have strong support – taxing cigarettes, Americans earning more than $250,000 annually and alcohol, beer and wine all have greater than 60 percent support. However, consistent with the overall pattern, support for revenue measures has softened across the board, with a portion of those surveyed shifting from "strongly" to "somewhat" supportive.

One highly debated issue has been the establishment of a public health insurance plan to compete with private plans – six in 10 respondents support this idea. When asked if they would be interested in purchasing a public insurance plan if it were made available, about a quarter of the public say they would "very likely" look into it and about a quarter would be "not at all likely" to explore purchasing such a plan.

Echoing the policy debate, 43 percent of those surveyed say a public plan would be more likely to drive private companies out of business, while 45 percent say it would cause private companies to become more efficient and provide better products.

When those who support the public plan are told that this could give the government an unfair advantage over private companies, overall support drops to 35 percent. Conversely, when opponents are told that public plans would give people more choice or help drive down costs through competition, overall support jumps to roughly 70 percent. 



"Public support for health reform will depend on which arguments get through to the American people and, ultimately, how they answer the question of how will health reform affect their family," said Mollyann Brodie, Kaiser's vice president and director of public opinion and survey research.

Messages that make the public feel more favorable about a healthcare reform plan:

• Can keep own doctor or health plan (74 percent more likely to support reform)
• Would ensure financial health of Medicare (67 percent)
• Would cover pre-existing conditions (66 percent)
• Won’t increase budget deficit (63 percent)
• Would provide financial help to get health insurance for those who need it (63 percent)
• Would save country money over time (63 percent)
• Higher quality of care for Medicare patients (59 percent)

Messages that make the public feel less favorable about a plan:

• Would increase premiums/out of pocket costs (66 percent)
• Would result in cuts in Medicare that make doctors less willing to participate (62 percent)
• Would limit choice of doctors (62 percent)
• Would get government too involved in healthcare (59 percent)
• Would reduce quality of care in Medicare (58 percent)
• Would increase taxes (58 percent)
• Would increase budget deficit (45 percent)