CNN POLL: Health care provisions popular but overall bills unpopular
This article demonstrates that some sort of a bill regarding health care should be able to be reached. The problem however is one that has existed throughout history and in democracies is that a lot of people really do not think through things, and they vote. The poll in the article states that majority of people think health insurance companies should not deny people with pre-existing conditions. The poll then linked in the article then states that forcing people to buy insurance is wrong as well. This is one point Obama was correct on, if you require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions then you have to force people to buy insurance because otherwise some people, particularly younger people will not buy insurance until they get sick. Insurance companies cannot afford this. This is one of the reasons why public opinion polls should not always be the final say in any matter. The problem is that I believe if you asked these same people is it ok to wait until you get sick to buy health insurance they would probably say no. I think you often get different responses to questions based on how they are worded.
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There are so many pros and cons. If this, then that. Widening the risk pool will drop premiums, and I am sure this lies behind the premise of forcing people to have coverage. I am not sure I buy into the idea that young people won't buy insurance until they get sick as a result of insurance companies not denying coverage to pre-existing conditions.
One thing this article didn't mention: insurance companies tying premiums to credit scores. As terrible as things have been lately, that has to stop.
To me this says that Democrats need to do a better job at messaging. If the public supports many provisions of the bill but do not support the bill as a whole, maybe congress members and the White House need to find a better way to talk about the bill so they connect with average Americans.
I also think the messy process in congress has turned people off to health care refrom. Anecdotally, my parents (one left leaning and one right leaning) are not that interested in politics, but they have been talking about how they think congress is "broken" and everyone should be thrown out of office. Whether it's accurate or not the media is portraying congress as especially contentious, and I think sometimes when people think the two parties are bickering excessively they get annoyed and tune out.
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