Oct

About that WaPo/ABC News Poll and the Public Option – Updated

I forgot to turn off Channel 9 again this evening and was treated to George Stephanopoulos breathlessly informing Charlie Gibson that a new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that a majority of Americans are in favor of a public option. I remembered this Rasmussen poll in my email this morning informing me that only 42% of Americans favor the plans proposed by the democrats.

I wondered, are Americans against the health bills in the Senate that don’t contain a public option and in favor of the House bill that does? Thought I’d go to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, and find out what questions WaPo/ABC News asked Americans to warrant the headline Public Option Gains Support – Clear Majority Now Backs Plan. Unfortunately, neither question they cite used the words “public” or “option.”

Q. Would you support or oppose having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?

[...]

Q. (IF OPPOSE/NO OPINION FOR GOVERNMENT PLAN) What if this government-sponsored plan was run by state governments and was available only to people who did not have a choice of affordable private insurance? In that case would you support or oppose this idea?

Who conducted this poll, Borat?

I follow this stuff every day, so if someone asked me those two questions I would say I oppose both. But what about people who aren’t political junkies? Would they believe “having the government create a new health insurance plan” means “public option?” I don’t know, but they didn’t ask if they approved of a “public option” so the headline is misleading.

I wonder what people would say if they were asked something like “Do you support health care reforms that empower individuals, control the cost of health insurance and keep government out of the health care business?” It’s a shame nobody’s asking us that.

Update: Ed Morrissey notes the poll was skewed democrat - with a sampling comprised of 33% Democrat and 20% Republican.

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