An interesting poll from Scott Rasmussen that shows only 37% of likely voters supporting a single payer health care system while 57% oppose it:
Other findings in the poll:
Fifty-two percent (52%) believe such a system would lead to a lower quality of care while 13% believe care would improve. Twenty-seven percent (27%) think that the quality of care would remain about the same.
Forty-five percent (45%) also say a single-payer system would lead to higher health care costs while 24% think lower costs would result. Nineteen percent (19%) think prices would remain about the same.
There's wide political disagreement over the single-payer issue. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats favor a single-payer system, but 87% of Republicans are opposed to one. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 22% favor a single-payer approach while 63% are opposed.
What's intriguing from my perspective is that even those who support a single payer, government run health care system believe costs would not go down and quality of care would not improve.
What are these people thinking, then? Why change to a government run system if its not going to lower costs or improve care?
Fathoming the American mind is hard to do at times.
Update from Thomas Lifson:
John Hinderaker of Powerline has an
insightful political take on the Democrats' collective devotion to a policy not favored by the majority of Americans.
The problem is that Americans who aren't Democrats overwhelmingly reject socialized medicine: 87 percent of Republicans are opposed, and those not affiliated with either party reject single payer by a decisive 63-22 percent margin.
So it's hard for Democrats to stay consistent. Democrats can't win primaries unless they advocate "universal health care"--another euphemism--but at the same time, they can't admit that Obama meant it when he said that his proposal would lead to the extinction of private insurance. Likewise at the micro level: Democrats are required to become indignant at the idea that their plan will force everyone to buy abortion coverage; they say the bill doesn't say that. No, it doesn't: it says that an unaccountable panel will decide what minimum coverages every insurance policy must have in order to be "qualified." ....
I suspect that the the Democrats' inability to talk honestly about health care (in public, anyway) is part of what drives their hysteria in the face of opposition to their plans.
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