Widespread misinformation about Obama's healthcare proposals

A new Harris Poll finds that large numbers of people either believe damaging misinformation about the health care proposals being discussed in Washington or are not sure what to believe. The polls also shows that almost half of all adults continue to support what they see as President Obama’s health care reform proposals, significantly but not substantially more than oppose them. And, more people like the president’s proposals than like what they think the Democrats in Congress are proposing, and much more than what they think Republicans in Congress want.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll^® of 2,334 adults surveyed online between September 8 and 15, 2009 by Harris Interactive^®.

Among the key findings:

• 49% to 41% plurality of adults supports what they see as President Obama’s proposals for reform, virtually unchanged from the 49% to 40% plurality that supported them in August. The numbers who are not sure have fallen from 29% in January and 20% in July to only 10% now, with most of those people now opposed.
• A slender 53% to 47% majority think that the president’s proposed reforms are good rather than bad. This is better than the 46% who think that the proposals coming from the Democrats in Congress are good and much better than the 35% who think that proposals coming from Republicans in Congress are good.

Misinformation about the president’s proposals is widespread and many people are not sure whether or not some of the stronger criticisms are valid. Specifically:

• A third (32%) of all adults believe that the president’s proposed reforms would phase out Medicare and only 46% give the correct answer that this is not part of his plans;
• A quarter (25%) of the public believes that the president’s plans would “promote euthanasia to keep costs down,” and only 56% believe this is untrue;
• 41% of the public believes that under the president’s plan “health care will be rationed.” The same proposition thinks this is not true. (Whether this criticism is valid is debatable. Some people argue that we already ration care by deciding what is or is not reimbursed under Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance.)
• Almost a quarter (23%) of adults believe that under the president's plan the government will be able to access people’s bank accounts to pay for their health care.

So what?

These and other poll findings show that opponents of the president’s plans for reform have been remarkably effective in persuading many millions of people that his plans include all kinds of unpleasant proposals that are false. Presumably this helps to explain why only about half of all adults support his proposals.

Whether or not the president and the Democrats can present a more accurate picture of what is, and is not, being proposed remains to be seen, and may be critical to winning public and congressional support for the bills that are eventually voted on by the Congress.