Pollsters push people to accept Obamacare

[Chris_]

Pollsters push people to accept Obamacare

Gallup has unintentionally revealed how they, and other polling organizations, have been pushing the public to accept Obamacare.

The revelation came in a report late last month which revealed that a significant majority of Americans believes that individuals themselves, and not the government, should be responsible for ensuring they have health insurance. According to Gallup, 61% of folks they surveyed believe that health insurance should be left to the individual, not the nanny state. Unsurprisingly, 89% of Republicans held that view, but so did 64% of independents. Only Democrats, at 62%, wanted Big Brother to shoulder the responsibility.

Even though the survey was released on September 30, not too many folks have seen these numbers. As they do with most anti-Obamacare news, the Democrats' Big Media acolytes have avoided the report like it was carrying swine flu germs.

Gallup's dismay at the results is palpable throughout their report on the new survey. They even gave the release a misleading title, "Many in U.S. See Health Insurance as Personal Responsibility," rather than the more accurate, Majority in U.S. See Health Insurance as Personal Responsibility.

While they spun the title, Gallup couldn't actually spin the hard numbers, so they quickly pointed out, "Other national polls on this topic have found a higher degree of public support for government involvement in guaranteeing healthcare coverage..." Then Gallup disclosed that "those (poll) question wordings do not provide a non-governmental alternative."

In other words, the Gallup release admits that its previous surveys about whether the government, or the folks themselves, should be responsible for their health insurance omitted the half of the equation dealing with individual responsibility.

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What???  Pollsters with an agenda???   

[Deuce]

This is an endemic problem with opinion polls. Another set of polls asking about a "public option" and a "government option." The support for the "government option" tanked several points even though it's the same question. There was a rather disturbing GOP poll that mentioned that the democrats "could use (this data) to deny services to registered republicans," and asked "whether this possibility concerned you." It was later retracted as being "inartfully worded"

Another fun poll. Support for taxes helping the poor get insurance was well supported. An easy majority... until you mentioned a number. "Would you pay $500 more per year in taxes to ensure that..." and suddenly we're down to 40%.

I remember a few years back I got a call from some pollster asking about my cable company, and whether I "really thought it was fair that ...." I stopped her halfway through and pointed out that her polls were geared to obtain a specific response, and told her to call me back when she had a neutral poll. Never got called again :P

Part of the problem is that polls aren't nuanced. It's usually "yes/no" or "strongly agree/agree/disagree/strongly disagree." Even asking "would you support a public option" isn't properly clarified. There have been several proposed versions. Some "strong," some "weak," and some downright useless. (the CBO estimated the enrollments for one of the options at ZERO) Which one are you asking about can be important, but if you ask "Do you support the public option proposed in HR-3200's pre-amended writing," most people would answer "Huh?"

If literally changing the name of the subject can push support above or below the majority line, you know the public is not properly educated on the subject. That will always be exploited.

I'm glad I'm not a senator. I'd be hard pressed the balance the desires of the people with the fact that sometimes you can't tell what it is they actually want!