Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 10, 2009 - Gallup: 54% Say Health Care System Will Not Improve Under Democrat Plan

The Senate held a moment of silence for the victims of the attack at Ft. Hood.  It will resume consideration of H.R. 3082, the fiscal year 2010 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (Milcon-VA) appropriations bill. Last night the Senate voted 72-16 to confirm Andre Davis to the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals and 88-0 to confirm Charlene Honeywell as District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. Congress is in recess the rest of the week for Veterans Day.

As the health care debate rolls on, there are times when it’s instructive to take another look at the broader landscape of health care reform, and yesterday’s Gallup poll affords such an opportunity. Gallup finds that since October, the percentage of Americans who would urge their member of Congress to vote for the Democrats’ health care reform bills has dropped 11 points. More would now advise their member of Congress to vote against the bill (38%) than for the bill (29%). By 2 to 1, independents are opposed to their member of Congress voting for a health care bill this year and interestingly only 55 percent of Democrats support the bills.

Why might this be? According to Gallup, “The debate over new healthcare legislation now shifts to the Senate, at a time when the majority of Americans are not convinced that a new law would benefit either the national healthcare system or their own personal healthcare situations in the long term.” Gallup further explains, “All in all, the data reinforce previous research showing some skepticism about the long-term benefits of healthcare legislation, particularly at the personal level. Less than half of the public at this juncture perceives that if a new healthcare bill is passed into law, it would improve either the broad U.S. healthcare system or their own healthcare situations.”

In particular, only 26% believe their health care situation will improve if the current health care legislation is passed. Most believe it will get worse (36%) or stay the same (31%). And only 41% believe the U.S. health care system will improve, while most think it will get worse (40%) or stay the same (14%). This once again shows that fewer than 50% of Americans think the bills being pushed by Democrats will have a positive impact on their health care or that of others.

Likely one reason Americans think so is the nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare that is a feature of the Democrat bills. In an interview with President Obama last night, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked, “Are you willing to pledge that whatever cuts in Medicare are being made to fund health insurance, one third of it, that you will veto anything that tries to undo that?” Obama answered, “Yes.” Pledging cuts to Medicare that could lead to benefit cuts doesn’t sound to most people like something that will improve health care.

It’s clear that the more Americans learn about the Democrats’ health care reform plans, the less they like them. As Senator McConnell has explained many times, “[We] know that at its core this bill would also lead to higher premiums, higher taxes, and massive cuts to Medicare to fund new government programs. This is not the reform the American people were looking for.”

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