Health Care Reform Polling

Two new polls are out from CNN and ABC/Washington Post that find that the country, as it has been for months, is split on the current healthcare reform plans before Congresss. I have always decried these type of polls, because the reporting on them assumes that if you are against the current bills before Congress then it means you are against all possible reform and in fact agree with the Republican opposition that reform is unnecessary, evil and socialist. Never before has a pollster asked the reason for opposition to the bills before Congress.

Until now.

Americans are split over the health care bill which narrowly passed the House of Representatives earlier this month, according to a new national poll — and the survey suggests the opposition to the legislation isn’t coming only from the right. […]

“Roughly one in three Americans opposes the House bill because it is too liberal, but one in 10 oppose the bill because it is not liberal enough,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “That may indicate that a majority opposes the details in the bill, but also that a majority may approve of the overall approach taken by House Democrats and President Obama.”

As a result, despite the division over the House bill, a majority of Americans would like to see the Senate take up the legislation.

I oppose the Stupak Amendment. I feel it goes well beyond the Hyde Amendment in a backdoor attempt to ban all abortions in this country. If I were so inclined, because of the Stupak Amendment, I would oppose the House Reform bill with the Stupak Amendment attached. Fortunately, I am a pragmatist and not a purist and am willing to overlook for now. But I wonder how many pro-choice women out there now oppose the healthcare reform bill simply because of the Stupak Amendment. According to prior pollsters, they are now opponents of reform in general. Indeed, how many single payer advocates are out there? They are opposed to the current bills, but they are most definitely not opposed to reform.

I am glad CNN is finally shedding some light on this.