Gallup: Americans Don't Think Health Care Coverage is a Gov't Responsibility
So what does month after month of folks arguing in favor of a bigger role for government in health care get you?
Fewer Americans believing that it's the responsibility of the federal government to provide health care coverage, according to a new poll from Gallup. "This is a first since Gallup began tracking this question, and a significant shift from as recently as three years ago, when two-thirds said ensuring healthcare coverage was the government's responsibility."
Thanks, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, the late Ted Kennedy. And President George W. Bush, whose Medicare prescription drug plan for seniors was an amazingly unnecessary heist of money from relatively poor people (the young) to relatively wealthy people (those over 65 years old).
Let's just keep 'em talking long enough and who knows, maybe we'll actually get the sort of market-based reforms that would actually lower costs and improve service in the health care sector.
Hat tip: Spencer Strauss
Bonus video: What if Government Ran Health Care (Sprint Ad Remix)?
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"the late Ted Kennedy"
Four sweetest words in the English language.
Meh. Who's going to pay attention to a poll named Gallup?
I am curious how many of the respondants have some form of govt funded health insurance.
Everyone should have some form of Government healthcare for 2 years. I USED to be on Medicaid. This way, people can see how UTTERLY FUCKING HORRID Government run healthcare can be!
It's one of the three main culprits behind my turn towards Libertarianism.
And the other two?
I started caring about my rights and money. Got sick and tired of the goons in Washington stealing both.
Whatever. They just needed a reason to make a graph into the shape of a pointy wang.
It's a gentile wang, you neocon!
Every girl I've been with has said they prefer the unclipped human weenus to the mutilated version.
I've heard the opposite, that the natural state is 'scary.' That is more of a reflection of its rarity in the US than anything though.
You must have dated some really slutty girls, for them to have an opinion on the matter...
I am curious how many of the respondants have some form of govt funded health insurance.
There are few things that make me believe a given collectivist is evil -- rather than just misguided -- than when he tells me that anyone who receives some benefit from an oversized government cannot advocate anything but an even more oversized government.
This is quite profound. It's a way of framing the issue such that we can never question government programs that are already in place. We must ever progress forth toward an all-encompassing state. Huzzah!
Or it could be that I find it curious that the numbers of people advocating health care as a govt responsibility started dropping the year after medicare part D went into effect. Like maybe they were all for it until they got theirs and then it sounded like a bad idea. Their change of heart, if there was one, could be attributed to the program quadrupling in cost in the 3 years between bill-signng and implementation.
fwiw, I get SSI disability and have medicare insurance coverage.
fwiw, I get SSI disability and have medicare insurance coverage.
Leech.
I was injured on the job. The private insurance company my employer contracted for worker's compensation denied authorization for the surgery their doctor wanted to do to attempt to fix my back. Their doctor has testified that without that surgery, I will never be able to work in any capacity or return to school. Forgive me if my only recourse, other than my wife collecting the life insurance, was to get soc. sec. disabilty.
Oh, and if you feel you must attack me personally, at least have the common courtesy to use your name. Anonymous name-calling is cowardly at best.
Every other leech has a sob story too.
While I find "anonymous" to be rude, I must question your claim that you cannot work. You post on H&R, which tells me you could likely do work on a computer from home (telecommuting). Years ago I worked at a company that did just that. The hired homebound people suffering from things like MS to field customer calls. It'm reminded of homeless peopl that stand on the street all day with a sign asking for money. I figure if they can stand for several hours a day, there must be somrthing they can do for a paycheck.
brotherben never said he wasn't working, just that he was on disability. He might very well be on part time or limited duty.
Per brotherben:
"I will never be able to work in any capacity or return to school" (emphasis added)
Damn. Ya got me there. I guess I didn't try everything humanly possible to earn a living instead of being a leech. I just wish I had your ability to so accurately assess such a complicated personal situation with such little information. You must be a real hit at the company christmas parties.
Aside from the "none of your damn business" angle, I believe (but, maybe it's just a rationale for my heresies) that what matters is advocating against the laws, whether they're to your advantage or not. If those laws exist, I don't see why not take advantage of them.
I can't imagine what the comfort is in watching the symphony of rent seeking that is America today, and thinking, "yes, but no one who thinks as I do is profiting from it at all."
Grab that government teat and suck dry the sacred cow of state power, brothers and sisters!
Now, I haven't thought this all the way through, because I would still consider using rent control or zoning to hose your lanlord or neighbor to be contemptible. But if there's a public trough out there, get'cher snout in it! -- and bring some extra home for the kids.
" I can't imagine what the comfort is in watching the symphony of rent seeking that is America today, and thinking, "yes, but no one who thinks as I do is profiting from it at all."
Grab that government teat and suck dry the sacred cow of state power, brothers and sisters!"
Congratulations, you're part of the problem!
"Now, I haven't thought this all the way through, because I would still consider using rent control or zoning to hose your lanlord or neighbor to be contemptible. But if there's a public trough out there, get'cher snout in it! -- and bring some extra home for the kids."
Congratulations, you're internally inconsistent!
Well, isn't this is a nice datum to receive on a rainy Friday afternoon. I would attribute the recent rise in Nays to fear that the feds are already spending way too much.
What is even more interesting is that a long standing poll that asks which is more important the economy or the environment did the same switcharo:
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes......vironment/
There has a been a shift...no idea if it is a libertarian shift (the poll doesn't ask if liberty is more important) or what.
People stop worrying about wild animals when they start getting worried about feeding their children.
I'm a product of public grade school, jr high school, high school and university. And I am a fairly hardcore libertarian.
Public schools aren't as high on my list of evil things that government does as they are on most libertarians, but that doesn't mean I would stand up and applaud if they were shut down either.
If you attend public schools from gradeschool through college, you are not allowed to comment about public schools.
Gotta love that logic. If you were imprisoned in a labor camp for 12 years, you are not allowed to comment on labor camps. You worked in a bank for 12 years; you are not allowed to comment on banks. You have been married for 12 years...
You forgot - You have been on Medicare so you can't complain about expanding goverment provided healthcare.
It was public schools that turned me into the sneering prick that I am today.
It was public schools that taught me these seven lessons.
Yeah, public schools are very educational. That education just has no relation to any of the lesson plans.
I learned how to maintain my composure in a classroom while the LSD from the night before made the chalkboard imagery swirl around behind the teacher. I learned how to get blowjobs on a schoolbus and how to take bong hits in the back of the art room. I learned that the earth is 6000 years old from my football coach/biology teacher who made me center square encircled by the desks of his jocks. I learned that so long as I got A's on my tests I could completely ignore homework's pursuit of my after school hours. I learned that I would see all the high school idiots again as I passed them by on their long journey to the middle.
I just posted the Gallup link on another message board, and the first response from a liberal was "But that's not whether government should provide an option for those who do not have healthcare."
Oh, another one just said this is a one-time anomaly!
It may be a one time anomaly: Once the state really gets a good grip on the individual and freedom of expression is muted by the constant threat of your account being zeroed out for not going along with Team America, polls will start showing massive support for everything government does.
Support for socialized medicine peaked in 07? What was going on then that had so many people deluded?
-jcr
Everybody against it but it's still going to pass. That's how it works in a democracy.
Personally I'm really looking forward to "Food Reform" so I can get my three squares for free too.
Then beer reform and hooker reform and I'll be all set. Obama for God!!!
Who would like a pony?
Yea: 92% Nay: 8%
Who wants to pay for everyone to have a pony?
Yea: 8% Nay: 92%
I think the change is a combination of seeing the cost (and, I think this is underestimated!), and realizing "shit -- when they said 'the rich' they were talking about me!! screw that!"
Who wants to pay for everyone to have a pony?
Yea: 8% Nay: 92%
Excellent.
"So what does month after month of folks arguing in favor of a bigger role for government in health care get you? "
It gets everybody to actually think, seriously, about it. And the more they seriously think it through, the more they don't like it.
I actually came back on this thread to say what ChrisH has said so well. Most of the people who were in favor of government insurance were convinced that this meant they'd be getting insurance for free. Most of these had college degrees.
Once they discovered that all of this meant they'd have to pay, well all of a sudden it seems like a bad idea.
We get the government we deserve.
Speak for yourself.
"Most of these had college degrees. "
More proof that a degree ain't worth the lamb skin it's printed on.
Support for socialized medicine peaked in 07? What was going on then that had so many people deluded?
Free money.
1: Like it or not, when Bush passed that drug benefit thingy, he was actually just being a good little employee, doing exactly what we the people--his boss--were telling him to do in this poll all eight of the years he was there.
2: The majority was mostly in favor of the Democrats' much-ballyhooed idea of having "universal health care" only for so long as the Dems were out of power and couldn't actually do anything they were talking about doing.
3: Big ideas only sound great to people when they haven't seen them put into practice yet.
4: Republicans will likely find it no easier to please anybody when they get back in power. Keeping their campaign promises will not win them many friends.
5: Thanks to poor memories, stupid viewers, and a biased media, we can expect to see the polls giving similar results during the next Republican President's term, whenever that may be.
6: Touting your party's big ideas to the people is a great way to win votes and an atrocious way to govern.