In the Washington Post (10/25/09), reporter Dan Balz has a piece about the “resurrection” of the public option in the Senate negotiations over healthcare reform. But like the Post‘s trumpeting of its recent poll on the issue, Balz’s rationale doesn’t make much sense. As he sees it, Senate Democrats “reevaluated the politics of the public option” in part because support was on the rise:
Then last week, new polls, one from the Washington Post and ABC News and the other from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, found clear majority support (57 percent) for a public option. The Post/ABC News poll showed support had risen five percentage points since August. The new numbers emboldened public-option supporters to press harder, even though the same polls continued to show the public divided over the overall shape of healthcare legislation.
As we pointed out already, the Post‘s numbers weren’t all that revelatory; the public option was popular before (with as much as 62 percent support in a June 18-21 Post/ABC poll) and continues to be popular. As for the Kaiser numbers Balz singles out, that poll did find 57 percent support this month; however, the month before (9/11-18/09), Kaiser found the public option supported by 59 percent.
Figuring out why the press is pushing this “public option comeback” storyline is difficult to fathom, but it’s undeniable that it is being sold with misleading citations of public opinion.
The WP and other mainstream journalists are pushing the “surprise comeback” line to counteract their own “populist uprising” line. By trumping up the phony “grassroots” movement against the public option this summer, they made the evidence for continuing support for it incomprehensible. So – voila! – an explanation arrives — the turnaround. Has they covered Congressional townhalls where constituents praised the reform plans, or spoke thoughtfully about health care options; had they asked fewer questions in surveys about “death panels” and more about what people want from a reformed health care system; they might have found more or less consistent support for the general outlines of the plan being brought forward right now — indeed, for an even ampler version pf public option. But they didn’t.
Public option now has been reduced to barely tolerable status and Obama doesn’t care one way or the other. It could barely help 3% and that is a crime. We want single payer not this with the Gingrich medical plan. Where the insurance is forced on us. If you can’t pay you are in trouble.
I have had yet to read a poll, other than those produced by the far-right for their own purposes, that hasn’t shown the “Public Option” to have overwhelming support among the public (as high as 73% to as low at 57%) since debate on the subject became noteworthy. The Medical Community has shown similar support according to their largest recognized organization, the American Medical Association.
Any reputable source that implies that the majority of the public’s support has been anything other than constant has to be self-serving at best. I’ll leave what may constitute “at worst” to your imagination.