Americans are worried about the amount of people that do not have health coverage, yet when asked about socialized government led initiatives, the plurality of respondents are opposed to it.
The latest in a long line of polls, this one done by
Rasmussen Reports, show that 39 percent of Americans are opposed to a government led system.
Do you favor or oppose a single payer National Health Insurance Plan overseen by the federal government?
29 percent Favor
39 percent Oppose
31 percent Not sure
Interestingly those same respondents show that 46 percent of them believe that the quality of healthcare would decrease under a system that was government led while only 16 percent believe the quality of care would increase. 20 percent believe care would stay the same and 18 percent are not sure.
42 percent of those question actually think that the cost of healthcare would rise and 25 percent think the costs would be lower.
Just as interesting is a
previous survey where only 31 percent believed that the US healthcare system is good or excellent and yet when asked about their own healthcare program they gave it higher reviews.
However, while unhappy with the situation overall, 72% of those with insurance rate their own coverage as good or excellent. Twenty-one percent (21%) say fair and only 6% say poor. Given these attitudes, the vast majority of voters will tend to be wary of any change unless they are completely assured that it will not impact their own insurance coverage.
That previous survey conducted in September of 2007, also shows that if given a choice between keeping their own health insurance program or changing to a government administered program, 62 percent say they would prefer to keep their own health coverage while only 18 percent say they would switch over and 20 percent are not sure.
When the answers were divided up by political affiliation, 78 percent of Republicans would keep their existing insurance and 49 percent of Democrats would as well and among people not affiliated with either party, 61 percent prefer to keep their own.
The healthcare is the US is lacking something, almost everyone agrees with that assessment, but the plurality of Americans do not want a socialized system but instead want the government to help them with the ability of keeping control of their own healthcare decisions.
