Majority of Americans Believe Health Care Not a Government Responsibility

[Frodo]

If you think we're going single-payer next time if Obamacare goes down, think again:

Poll: Health care not government’s job

By JOSE DELREAL | 11/18/13 4:15 PM EST

The majority of Americans say that guaranteeing access to health care isn’t the responsibility of the federal government, according to a new poll released Monday.



The Gallup survey shows that 56 percent of adults do not believe the government has a responsibility to ensure that Americans have healthcare coverage, compared to 42 percent who say it is the government’s responsibility. The number represents a record high, marking a 28 point increase since 2006.

(...)

A majority of Americans believed the government should play a role in ensuring health coverage for Americans prior to 2009, when President Obama took office.

The survey of 1,039 adults was conducted Nov. 7 to Nov. 10 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.
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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/poll-health-care-government-responsibility-100004.html#ixzz2l4CxUQ4y

[Yank2133]

Americans are stupid.

[badgate]

Americans are selfish, we knew this. They want to hoard what they have because they keep being falsely told by the right that the left wants to take everything and give it to poor people who go to the library to use the internet.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

That's what happens to an issue when the entire right-wing propaganda machine is running against it.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

What percentage of the respondents who said 'no' are on or plan on using Medicare or Medicaid?

[King]

Baby boomers gonna boom.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

What percentage of the respondents who said 'no' are on or will plan on using Medicare or Medicaid?

I wouldn't be shocked if it was a higher fraction of those on Medicare.

[Franzl]

If it wouldn't hurt millions of innocent people, I'd almost wish for the right-wing propaganda to succeed. Americans should get the crappy healthcare they desire.

[afleitch]

That's what happens when you've been conditioned to think that way.

[Mopsus]

The majority of Americans also have health insurance.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Poll: Health care not government’s job

They why do most Americans support single payer?

[jaichind]

Notice how the tide shifted in 2009 at a time when there was a chance that government might be more responsible for health care.  This tells us people are fine saying they want to help their fellow man but when that choice becomes real and they might have to pay for it then they will balk.  I think this has less to do with the effective GOP campaign to frame this issue but I am sure it did not help.

Another example of this can be seen my neighborhood of Scarsdale.  Most people they love to talk about how open minded they are and how they embrace diversity.  I usually break them by asking for their views on the possiblity of low income minority multi-family housing in Scarsdale.  All that liberalism disappears in an instant at this prospect.  And they way they vote bears this out as they way they vote at the national level leans Democratic but leans GOP in local issues when all their support for diversity and other assorted hogwash are put to the test.

[Consciously Unconscious]

This is a good sign.  This is one of the benefits of the rise of the libertarian movement! 

[Bandit3 the Worker]

This is a good sign.  This is one of the benefits of the rise of the libertarian movement! 

Isn't the screen name "Liberty Republican" an oxymoron?

[DemPGH]

Whose responsibility then?? The employer? Ridiculous. That's what brought all this about. But we're back to the problem, I think, that yes, Americans are conditioned to think government cannot work, but also the broader, deeper issue is that Americans want services but they don't want to pay for them: healthcare and education are the main two.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A generic question has been effectively replaced by a specific - partisan - one, even though the wording is no different. Thus dramatically different responses, despite the wording of the question being exactly the same.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This tells us people are fine saying they want to help their fellow man but when that choice becomes real and they might have to pay for it then they will balk.

That's not a good thing. Irrespective of one's position on any specific issue, that as a general observed principle is, while sadly accurate to a point, really, really, really not a good thing by the lights of pretty much any moral system.

[Gass3268]

Baby boomers gonna boom.

Pretty much, now that they already have their guaranteed and affordable health care with medicare they couldn't give a rat's ass about the rest of America. Baby boomers truly are the most selfish generation!

[angus]

odd.  I wonder what happened in 2006?  I can understand the arrest in 2009, followed by the slight uptick in 2010 and 2011, but what might have happened to cause first the peak, then the rapid change in the attitudes starting at that time.  

[Bandit3 the Worker]

odd.  I wonder what happened in 2006?  I can understand the arrest in 2009, followed by the slight uptick in 2010 and 2011, but what might have happened to cause first the peak, then the rapid change in the attitudes starting at that time.  

Doesn't Gallup skip cell phones? That's probably why it flipped in the late 2000s.

[Beet]

A generic question has been effectively replaced by a specific - partisan - one, even though the wording is different. Thus dramatically different responses, despite the wording of the question being exactly the same.

Precisely. The ironic thing is that the ACA places the responsibility on the individual to purchase insurance, not the government.

[angus]

Doesn't Gallup skip cell phones? That's probably why it flipped in the late 2000s.

Intriguing hypothesis.  I hadn't thought of that.

I just looked it up and found that, according to Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport, "Gallup has been including cell phone-only households in all national telephone Gallup polls since January 2008. Further, cell phone-only households are now as likely to fall into national Gallup polls samples as those living in traditional landline households." 

So that's not why it flipped.  I'm trying to think back to late '05 early '06 to come up with something, but it escapes me.  I can remember isolated medically-related news stories, like the death of Terry Schiavo in the spring of 2005 and a widely-circulated report about how birth control pills might cause testosterone problems.  None of that seems to really account for the big spike in 2006, then the decline starting in 2007.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Grass is green, the sky is blue...

[Cassius]

They are right of course. The responsibilities of the government are to protect private property rights, uphold the rule of law, represent the concerns of citizens on an international level and to maintain infrastructure. These are the proven competencies of the government.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

They are right of course. The responsibilities of the government are to protect private property rights, uphold the rule of law, represent the concerns of citizens on an international level and to maintain infrastructure. These are the proven competencies of the government.

And to stop gays from marrying each other.