Poll: Most say Congress should start again on health care

"A majority of Americans say President Obama and congressional Democrats should suspend work on the health care bill that has been on the verge of passage and consider alternatives that would draw more Republican support, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds," USA Today reports. "The results underscore the unsettled prospects for health care legislation — which has consumed much of the capital's energies for nearly a year — in the wake of Republican Scott Brown's upset victory in the Massachusetts Senate race Tuesday… An overwhelming 72% of those surveyed Wednesday say the Bay State result 'reflects frustrations shared by many Americans, and the president and members of Congress should pay attention to it.'"

But the poll found less unanimity "about the larger meaning of Brown's victory, however: 55% call for Democrats to go back to the drawing board for a more bipartisan proposal while 39% say they should continue to work on the current bill. One in four Democrats say lawmakers should draft a new bill, as do 56% of independents and 87% of Republicans" (Page, 1/22).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.