“Public option” bait-and-switch campaign fools pollsters

[slipslidingaway]

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/10/19/%e2%80%9cpublic-option%e2%80%9d-bait-and-switch-campaign-fools-pollsters/

By Kip Sullivan, JD

"...The New York Times reported on Saturday, October 17, that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is warning his constituents that the “public option” is not going to be available to the great majority of Americans...

Does the public understand this? According to Wyden, they don’t. Wyden says his constituents are shocked when they are told the “option” will not be available to the vast majority of Americans. When he began informing his constituents about this truth last summer, “They nearly fell out of the bleachers,” he said (“And the public option is….,” New York Times, October 17, 2009, A10).

I was not surprised by Wyden’s observation. I have written several papers warning the public that they have been the object of a “bait and switch” campaign by the leadership of the “option” movement. The “bait” in this campaign was the original version of the “option” promoted by Jacob Hacker. This version would have created an enormous public program that would have insured half the non-elderly population. Among several provisions of this first version of the “option” that would have ensured large size was one that said the “option” had to be available to all non-elderly Americans. The “switch” occurred when Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and three chairmen of House committees drafted legislation that would create a very small and weak “option.” One of the provisions in the Democrats’ legislation that ensured their version of the “option” would be weak was a provision limiting subsidies and eligibility for the “option” to a small fraction of the population, namely, the uninsured and employees of small firms...

After reading Wyden’s warning, I examined over 50 polls to see if any pollsters had bothered to investigate the issue Wyden is raising. It would be interesting, I thought, to see if (a) pollsters had allowed themselves to be fooled by the bait-and-switch campaign for the “option” and (b), to the extent that they hadn’t been fooled, what did they find out about how badly the average American had been fooled?

I discovered that the nation’s best known polling firms have allowed themselves to be fooled. Pollsters are asking the public the wrong question. They are asking the public to comment on Hacker’s original version of the “option” (the “bait”), not the actual “option” proposed in the Senate HELP Committee bill and HR 3200. Not surprisingly, the polls tell us very little about whether the public thinks the “option” will be available to everyone or to just a small minority..."

[slipslidingaway]

1. Latest CBS News Poll ...

http://pollingreport.com/health.htm

"Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government-administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?"

[KansDem]

4. Even after all the lies and misinformation, "favor" outdoes "oppose" 2:1...

"Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government-administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?"


Favor Oppose Unsure
% % %
10/5-8/09
62 31 7
9/19-23/09
65 26 9
8/27-31/09
60 34 6
7/24-28/09
66 27 7
7/9-12/09
64 29 7
6/12-16/09
72 20 8

[slipslidingaway]

5. Look at the wording of the poll which I highlighted n/t

[Laelth]

15. What message can we possibly glean from this data?

Our Democrats serve the insurance industry, and not the people.

I can see no other reasonable conclusion.

:shrug:

:dem:

-Laelth

[slipslidingaway]

17. Unfortunately that is the same conclusion I've drawn, thanks for the kick nt

[MarjorieG]

2. And knowing it's weaker, still can't get ConservDems. Once running, more will be allowed, and

that's the fear. Also why many, inc. Dean, want Medicare to 50 until P.O. takes effect. Outrage if P.O. not extended.

[slipslidingaway]

8. Kip Sullivan is speaking about the deception in selling the PO to...

the public which also includes the polls.

[Faryn Balyncd]

3. K&R. A weak plan will rape the middle class & destroy our democratic majority.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Agreed n/t

[damntexdem]

6. The PO needs to be an option for all.

Otherwise it will become a ghetto for some.

[slipslidingaway]

10. Exactly! n/t

[truedelphi]

7. Yep we are being played.

It is a kinder gentler Administration playing us, but we are still being taken for chumps.

[slipslidingaway]

11. This was a magnificent campaign to move support from a not for profit...

national health care plan for everyone, to a compromise where we mostly subsidize the private insurance companies.

:(

[ipaint]

13. Yes it was and there were people here pointing that out early on and no one listened.

They will slap the words public option/co-opt/opt-out on something, anything, and people won't know what happened until they look to sign up and get a big fat NO you can't combined with a mandate to purchase private overpriced scam insurance.

Private insurers will make sure the folks that can afford the upper tier levels of insurance, here in the states your human worth is tied to directly your wealth, will get a break on rates and any complaints from the working classes and the poor will be poo-pooed by "the haves" as unfounded right wing nonsense or the irresponsible ramblings of insurance deadbeats too cheap to pay their fair share.

So far nothing has happened that wasn't predicted by folks warning of the scam early on.

[slipslidingaway]

14. Well I can at least say one thing...

I never signed a petition for a public option as it was never clearly defined.

:hi:

[ipaint]

16. This latest washington post abc poll does the same thing

Look at question #8 and #9. #9 asking about individual state run public options assumes #8 is referring to a government option open to all even though #8 doesn't specifically say that. Why isn't it mentioned in question #8 that the public opton in will only be available those without insurance as the president said in his healthcare speech.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_101909.html?sid=ST2009101902502

You get enough people on tv and in the polls claiming or implying the public option is like medicare for those that choose it and people apparently think that's what they are getting.

[slipslidingaway]

18. That is exactly what happened when the plan was sold to the people...

how many times did people hear you can choose between a private plan or a public plan like Medicare.

The poll you mentioned says nothing about the plan not being offered to everyone.

[slipslidingaway]

12. Jacob Hacker video on the Health Care for America plan ...

about 3 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-J9ZgCRiD8

[slipslidingaway]

19. kick nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. And that is a recipee for electoral disaster

at times I wonder if that is what they want. After all the Republicans can then undo it.

of course if the RNC gets a brain transplant they will correct it and make it work. After all whoever gives the American people health care will assure their electoral success for the next generation.

Of course that assumes a GOP that actually got a brain transplant...

[slipslidingaway]

21. Yes it is, if the final outcome is an option that is not available ...

to most people there will be a backlash against those who implemented the reform.

The GOP will most likely remain beholding to the same group of private investors and will not strengthen any reform that is passed. Since the PO cannot add to the deficit, it can just die from natural causes or linger as an option with only 3% enrolled in the plan.