Going into the health care summit, polling shows that the nation is very divided on most questions related to reform. But they hate the bills the Democrats have created.
One thing that is interesting (PDF) is that 38% of respondents oppose preventing health insurance companies from dropping coverage for people who become seriously ill and 42% oppose preventing health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. I am really struggling to explain how that could be the case. When it comes to creating a public health insurance option administered by the federal government that would compete with plans offered by private companies, the people support it 51%-48%.
I admit that these issues are complicated. But I find it alarming that nearly half of America thinks it’s cool to take people’s money for health insurance and then to renege on paying their bills when they get sick. I don’t understand how that could be. But the one thing I think I do understand is that right-wing media penetration not only dwarfs the left, but it dwarfs common sense. We have around 40% of the electorate that is actually rooting for corporate America to beat the little guy. Unbelievable.
That’s because the electorate are fucking idiots. I honestly don’t see any way around that conclusion.
As some Brit put it recently, it’s like a counter French Revolution, with the starving peasants rioting to give more power to the aristocracy.
People like this are too stupid to live, in my “elitist” opinion. They deserve what they’ll get, which is fucked over by their lying “populist” heros, for the rest of their flag-waving lives.
Sorry people, we are truly going broke so if you want health coverage, get on board now. If health care passes, the press will be disappointed. They might have to cover that instead of FIRE everybody BO because you FAIL. They certainly want specific people gone–anyone from Chicago–so maybe he will be more chummy with the Villagers. You know, like Sally.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8474611.stm
This sums it up pretty well.
A full year of propaganda against the public option, the White House only giving lip service to the public option, and you don’t understand why 37% who are Republican and hate Obama for just being elected plus an additional 11% who either have been swayed by the propaganda or a just confused about what a public option is — you don’t understand how that can be.
I don’t understand why the public option hasn’t be killed with all the opposition to it. And why people accurately understand that it means that their claims will get paid and not that it is a free lunch (thanks Blanche Lincoln for that messaging).
It’s just “What’s the matter with Kansas?” writ large, that’s all.
I share your view inre the public option, but I don’t get why a single person responded that its okay to rescind a health policy when the client gets sick. That defeats the purpose of buying it.
I kinda wonder if people just misunderstood the question, or if it went by too fast for them to think through it. It was one of a whole list of “favor or oppose” questions, and worded “Preventing health insurance companies from dropping coverage for people who become seriously ill”.
If they had instead described rescission and asked if it should be banned, I’d bet results would be different.
wondering the same thing
I’m thinking: “If you get too sick you drive up premiums for ME.”
“I find it alarming that nearly half of America thinks it’s cool to take people’s money for health insurance and then to renege on paying their bills when they get sick. I don’t understand how that could be. But the one thing I think I do understand is that right-wing media penetration not only dwarfs the left, but it dwarfs common sense. “
The reason is a simple one. Healthy people who currently have jobs and insurance do not think that the unthinkable will ever happen to them or someone they love. As stupid and delusional as that is, it is really at the core of the poll numbers. It is always going to happen to “the other guy”. One who is not as deserving, privileged and worthy as yourself. It is only those who are lazy, unmotivated and born with a sense of entitlement who will find themselves in unfortunate circumstances. And we all know who “those people” are.
It is one of the more disheartening of human traits and one which runs right down the middle of our country’s character and soul.
The salient fact in American politics is that there will always be sufficient people who would volunteer to live with their family in a cardboard box under a railroad bridge, and toast sparrows on an old curtain rod over an open fire, if you would only guarantee them that the people in the next box over to drive policy.
Any politics not grounded in the assumption that people are shits is doomed to fail. Hence the enduring relevance of the Federalist Papers.
Looks like you left out part of your comment.
,,,if you would only guarantee them that the people in the next box over don’t have a curtain rod or a sparrow to cook on it
drive policy.Republicans are like lemmings (def. Any of various small, thickset rodents, especially of the genus Lemmus, inhabiting northern regions and known for periodic mass migrations that sometimes end in drowning.)
If it wasn’t so scary it would be funny. The media HAS to step up and call a lie a lie. Someone has to stand up for the truth. Rachel did an excellent piece last night doing just that. Cheers to Rachel.
“The media HAS to step up and call a lie a lie.”
Huh? It’s the media’s job to lie. That’s their purpose. Did you actually think its job was to inform?
Are you going to do an Open Thread on this? Lamar Alexander is pissing me off! Blah, blah, blah, start from scratch, blah, blah, blah, do it our way or not at all, blah, blah, blah, don’t rush, freight train bullshit after a fucking year of committees… jamming it thru, START OVER! No, asshole, you missed the freight train.
It really doesn’t matter what comes after the ellipses, if you find it alarming that half of the public believes it then you have a much too-high view of the American public.