From the Editor-in-Chief of Gallup"
Source: http://pollingmatters.gallup.c...healthcare.html#more
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The People's Perspective as Healthcare Reform Passes the House
We'll know more about the short-term reaction to the historic House passage of healthcare reform on Tuesday. Thats when we will have the results of a new Monday night Gallup poll gauging attitudes a day after passage.
Meanwhile: Do we have a good fix on where the public stood on healthcare reform just as it was passed by the House Sunday night?
Ive been studying a series of polls conducted on this issue over the last two weeks. One conclusion: A good deal of variance in the publics response across surveys.
Our most recent Gallup poll found a three percentage point tilt against Congress passing the legislation. Two other recent polls (Pew and Fox News/Opinion Dynamics) showed the healthcare legislation opposed by 10-point margins or higher. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll asked two separate questions about the legislation. One showed a one-point favor over oppose margin. The other showed an eight-point opposition margin. A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds a four-point favor over oppose margin.
We note differences across surveys in how the questions were asked. Some survey questions included explicit references to Democrats and to the president. Others do not. Some asked a basic favor or oppose question about the plan. Others asked more explicitly about Congress voting for or against the plan. The aforementioned Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll asked a favor or oppose question and a more complex want the plan to pass question. The latter got the one-point affirmative margin. The former received the eight-point opposition margin. Each question in each poll was placed in a different spot in different poll contexts. One poll used registered voters. The rest used national adults.
On her new show "State of the Union" Sunday, Candy Crowley of CNN Sunday reviewed some of these healthcare reform poll results. She then asked: "Is it in the way the question is asked? Are more people more likely to support it when it's called the Obama plan or is it that people think some change is better than no change?"
The answers to Crowley's rhetorical questions may be "yes." But. I dont find any immediate indications of specific patterns that pin down what those differences are. I dont detect any specific independent variables that appear to explain the variation in the dependent variables (attitude towards the healthcare bill). If you, the reader do, please comment on this post and tell us all what you see.
If nothing else, this type of variation across questions asking about a specific policy issue (at roughly the same time period) suggests the potential for future shifts in support or opposition. The healthcare debate is now going to turn to the after vote spin. And the after vote responses of Americans will be closely monitored. Will there be growing appreciation for the bill? Will there be a growing backlash against the bill? The variation in the current data underscores a fairly banal but real conclusion that we dont know. Thats why we are going to continue to conduct surveys.
More observations from public opinion data on healthcare reform.
1. If Republican opponents want to build off of existing public opinion, they will focus on the costs of the bill and its implications for an expanded role for federal government. These are the existing reasons given by Americans for opposing the bill. In other words, big picture objections. If Democrats build off of existing public opinion, they will focus on the benefits the bill will provide to the less fortunate and those without insurance. These are the most prominent reasons given by those who favor the bill. In other words, smaller picture specific benefits.
2. Which way will the who benefits elements of the bill play? The average American is not expecting a great deal from the bill personally. The majority of Americans say the situation for them and their family will either stay the same or get worse after passage of the bill. So there will not be huge groups of Americans bitterly disappointed if they do not see immediate benefits from the bills passage. They are not expecting any. This could be positive news for the Democrats. But, this could play both ways. The fact that the average American is not expecting any benefit from the bill could mean that they wont have any reason to be enthusiastic about it.
3. There is nothing new under the sun. Back in 1993-1994 the major reasons given by Americans for objecting to a new healthcare bill were costs and government involvement. Fast forward to today. Same set of pros and cons to the bill.
4. Everyone is asking what the impact of the passage of the bill will be on the coming midterm elections. Well. I am an empiricist. Which means, to some degree, that we are going to have to wait and see. Here, however, are three things to keep in mind.
* Congressional Job approval is at 16% now. Congress is controlled by the Democrats. The Pew Research Center recently asked Americans what word came to mind first when respondents heard the word 'Congress'. The most frequent response was dysfunctional. Another frequently mentioned word was inept. Now Congress has actually done something and passed a new plan . This could counter these existing perceptions. Congressional job approval could grow. Democrats could gain some positioning.
* The economy is going to be a major factor in the midterm elections. If the economy recovers by the fall, the resulting good vibrations will push healthcare reform to more of a back burner. And obviously benefit the Democrats. If the economy continues to falter, it could also swamp healthcare reform as an issue -- but benefit the Republicans.
* For those who argue that the Democrats will suffer significant losses because a healthcare reform bill was passed, please look back to the 1994 midterm elections. Here Bill Clinton did not get his healthcare reform bill passed. It failed, at that time in line with popular opinion. Did the failure of healthcare to pass therefore mean that the Democrats averted major losses in the 1994 November election? Not hardly. The Democrats suffered one of their most significant defeats in modern history. Its hard to believe that it would have been worse had Bill and Hillary Clinton been able to pass healthcare. Im not sure of the exact lesson to be learned here. But I guess one point is: Dont be too quick to jump to conclusions about the impact of the passage of the healthcare reform bill.
Sad thing...
More Americans will worry about who gets booted off of "American Idol"...or the next "Bachelorette" than this massive cost/intrusion.
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