Majority of public still says the government is responsible for basic health care: WPO poll

The following is being distributed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland:

A new poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) finds that over the last year, as the health care debate has intensified, a bipartisan consensus that the government is responsible for ensuring access to health care has fractured. Nonetheless, a majority of the public still says the government is responsible for basic health care, and there is bipartisan support for numerous key reform proposals including a limited public option, regulation of the health insurance industry, tort reform, and cross-state purchasing.

In 2008, asked whether the US government "should be responsible for ensuring that its citizens can meet their basic need for health care," 77% said that it should be, including clear majorities of all parties. However, the new WPO poll finds that Republican support for the proposition has dropped from 55% support to 29%. Overall, support has dropped 17 points, but 60% still say that government is responsible.

However, there is bipartisan support for many specific proposals including a limited public option available only to those who cannot get health insurance from an employer, 75% overall, including 59% of Republicans. A requirement that insurance companies accept every applicant for coverage has overwhelming support, 82% overall, 90% of Democrats, 80% of independents, and 73% of Republicans.

Government regulation of malpractice suits against doctors has modest support -- 55%, while cross-state purchasing of insurance is strongly supported by large majorities of Americans across the partisan spectrum.

As debate over health care reform rages in Congress, only 24% percent of the public say the debate is drawing them closer to the Democrats' ideas and just 21% closer to the Republicans' ideas. But fifty percent say they are less supportive of both parties' ideas.

Steven Kull, director of WPO comments, "The bad news is that the current partisan debate seems to be fracturing the public consensus on the role of government in health care. The good news is that among the public Republicans and Democrats are still able to find common ground on specific reforms."

The national survey of Americans was fielded September 26-October 5, 2009 by Knowledge Networks. All questions had over 800 respondents with margin of error from +/- 2.6 to 3.5 percentage points.