Republicans Ignore Public Acceptance of Health Care Reform

Matthew Green — June 2, 2010 – 8:44 am | Congress | Election 2010 | Health Care | Polls Comments (0) Add a comment

During the passage of historic health care reform earlier this year, Democrats spoke of a future in which nearly all Americans would view universal health care the same as they view Medicare and Social Security as basic guaranteed rights.

Today, it appears as though the nation may be on a path toward that end. Though polls show that the debate between supporting and opposing reform is effectively at a stalemate, there has been no meaningful effort to actually repeal health care reform since its passage. Ricardo Alonsi-Zaldivar of the AP wrote that the effort to repeal reform is “losing steam”:

“While polls show Americans remain sharply divided over the Democrats’ landmark legislation, they aren’t clamoring for its repeal. Instead, the public seems willing to listen to candidates who would give the overhaul a chance and fix or improve it as needed. That’s the signal from some surveys and a congressional race in a bellwether Pennsylvania district.”

57 percent of political independents favored giving the law a chance, compared with 40 percent opposed. Additionally, 55 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for a congressional candidate willing to give the law a chance to work before making changes as needed.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said,

“The repeal message is falling flat. People want to work to implement the law and make changes as necessary, they don’t want to go back and re-debate and re-litigate this whole issue.”

This trend in public opinion will be an obstacle for the GOP this year, as rank-and-file Republicans continue to rail against health care reform.

The GOP has already begun a kvetch offensive about Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama’s pro-reform pick to head Medicare and Medicaid. Their delay in confirming Dr. Berwick “could hamper efforts to meet countless implementation deadlines in the new law.”

Republican attempts to inject more anti-reform hostility into the health care debate are unwise when Americans prefer Democrats to Republicans by an eight point margin when it comes to handling the health care issue. The GOP is clearly taking a step in the wrong direction.

 

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