Poll: More want health law expanded than fully repealed - FINALLY

[ProudDad]

This should appear in latest breaking but I didn't see it until today...

Earlier this month, some on the right got very excited by a Gallup poll finding that a plurality, 46 percent, want the health law repealed, versus only 40 percent who want to keep it in place. That poll, however, only presented two options: Repeal, or let the law stand as is.

Today brings a new Marist poll that takes a more fine grained look at public attitudes towards repeal, and its results are quite different. No one should be under any illusions: The health law is unpopular. But the picture is complicated. Marist:

Which one of the following comes closest to your opinion about what Congress should do with the 2010 health care law:

Let it stand: 14

Change it so it does more: 35

Change it so it does less: 13

Repeal it completely: 30

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/01/poll_more_want_health_law_expa.html

[Exilednight]

1. Let's see if Obama listens. I won't hold my breath. n/t

[ProudDad]

2. Well, nothing good can occur for the next 2 years...

as long as the pukes hold the House...

[ProSense]

3. That has

always been the case:

From the poll (PDF)

<...>

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to take action to repeal the 2010 Health Care Law, but are voters satisfied with the law? Just 14% of registered voters want the law to exist in its current form. 35% want it changed so that it does more, and 13% would like it altered so that it does less. Three in ten -- 30% -- want the law completely repealed. Nine percent are unsure. These proportions are similar to those found in McClatchy-Marist’s late November survey.

<...>

The November poll (PDF)

<...>

It has been eight months since President Barack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law. But, most voters aren’t completely satisfied with it. Surprisingly, however, about as many registered voters in the United States -- 35% -- want Congress to amend the 2010 Health Care Law so that it does more as those who want the law to be repealed -- 33%. 11% want it changed so that it does less while 16% think the law should stand in its current form. Five percent are unsure.

<...>

The good news is that the repeal it number dropped by 3 points.

[Igel]

5. Except that it has the same problems as that poll, too.

In surveys asking if people wanted a "public option" or want the bill "to do more" versus no bill or scrapping it, more wanted a public option and wanted the bill to do more. That's unchanged.

But when you get rid of the insane amount of ambiguity in "public option" and "do more" the plurality disintegrates. There are dozens of ways for it to "do more," and most don't want most of them. There's only one way to scrap it.

The problem was in the rhetoric the article "a" became "the". It's damned hard not to do it: Even just above, knowing that I was making precisely this distinction, "public option" wasn't a policy it was a poll selection, a definite referent in the verbal context. As policy, it was still "a public option" but when referring back to the poll the selection was "the 'public option' (option)."

[ProSense]

7. The poll isn't about the public option

and the poll linked to is the same one cited in the OP.

There are numerous polls showing that a significant majority of people like specific parts of the bill, including those who want it to do a lot more.

The point is that there was never a time when those who want the entire bill repealed have outnumbered those who want to keep it and change it.

[otohara]

4. Change It So It Does Less?????

Considering that so much of it doesn't kick in for a couple years, how could anyone possibly answer this?

Frank Luntz probably came up with that one

[midnight]

6. And by changing it so it does more,,,,, Let's add real competition and choice....