Public: Change Equals Worse Health
by John Goodman
Issue 140 - September 30, 2009

My faith in democracy is being restored. Take a look at the chart below…..then look again…..and again.

Q:  If the health care system is changed, do you think ….. will get better, worse, or remain the same?

These are some of the most remarkable polling results I've ever seen. If they don't knock your socks off, you just don't understand the situation.

Note first that these opinions are not directed at the Kennedy/Dodd bill or the Waxman bill or at a likely Baucus/Grassley bill. They are opinions about health reform as such, or about any reform bill that is likely to pass and be generically referred to as "Obama Care."

Note second that (a) these are the same people who gave Barack Obama a landslide election victory last November, that (b) Obama's signature domestic policy issue was health care and that (c) Obama claimed we needed reform for the express purpose of solving the problems of cost, quality and access.

Note third that the opinions reflected in the poll have not been vocalized anywhere on Capitol Hill or anywhere in the mainstream media. Sure, there have been Republican critics of Democratic proposals, and the mainstream media has questioned whether the bills will accomplish all that the sponsors are hoping for. But virtually no politician or news reporter or editorial writer or network talking head has gone so far as to say: not only are these plans not going to work, they are going to make every one of our health care problems worse than they would have been. [Okay, the Wall Street Journal editorial page comes close to being the exception.]

Note finally that the opinions held by the general public are almost certainly correct. As we have explained at this blog on many occasions for well over a year now, the fundamental structure of Obama Care is deeply flawed. So much so, that almost any version of it will likely make our health care problems worse — not better.

Here is a parting question for you to ponder: Why are the people so much more perceptive than the pundits who try to tell them what to think?

John Goodman is president of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

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