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Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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41% Favor Government Health Insurance Plan, 44% Opposed

April 28th, 2009 • Richard Cochrane
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 nurseAmericans are closely divided on whether it’s a good idea to establish a government health insurance company to compete with private health insurance companies.

Forty-one percent (41%) are in favor of a government-run health insurance plan, while 44% are opposed, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure.

 Americans are evenly divided over whether a government plan would have an unfair advantage over private insurers. Thirty eight percent (38%) say yes; the identical number (38%) say no.

 

But a plurality of all Americans (49%) still believes a private health insurance company is likely to provide better service and more choice. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say a government-run plan would do a better job and offer more choice, but one-out-of-five (21%) are not sure which would do better.

 One major issue is whether new health care options will allow Americans to choose their own doctors. It is significant to note that just 50% believe the current system allows most Americans to make that choice. Most private sector employees say that Americans today do not have such a choice, but government employees, entrepreneurs, and retirees disagree.

 Earlier surveys have shown that few Americans rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent, but most rate their own insurance coverage in such terms.

For Democrats, health care reform is the most important of Obama’s priorities this year, while Republicans and unaffiliated Americans rate deficit reduction as number one.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of U.S. voters agree with the president that “we must make it a priority to give every single American quality affordable health care.”

There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by proletarian on 29 April 2009:

    Hell Richard, most of us are having difficulty providing good insurance to our own families, let alone paying for the rest of the country’s.I really don’t think most American’s will agree with Obama when they get the bill for both.

  2. Comment by Silence Dogood on 29 April 2009:

    Perhaps we should contemplate the words of Frederick Bastiat in his work, The Law (1850):

    The Seductive Lure of Socialism

    Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should be just; it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation.

    This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat again: These two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other. We must choose between them. A citizen cannot at the same time be free and not free.

  3. Comment by richard on 29 April 2009:

    It is an extension of the cost - benefit debate. The bad news is that the government has not run out of your money to spend. You have - it hasn’t.

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