Take a look at this new opinion survey by Harris for the Wall Street Journal. Interesting and sometimes contradictory (see questions 4 and 6) results. In general, Democrats and Independents seem more closely aligned than Republicans and Independents. Also, (question 1), there seems a real shift in public attitudes about people’s lifestyle choices. Seems like the foundation of support for the concept of social insurance is still running strongly.
1. People who have healthy lifestyles, don’t smoke, exercise frequently and control their weight tend to incur fewer health care costs than people with unhealthy lifestyles. Do you think it would be fair or unfair to ask people with unhealthy lifestyles to pay higher insurance premiums than people with healthy lifestyles
| 2003 | 2006 | |
| Fair | 37 | 53 |
| Unfair | 46 | 32 |
“Please tell us whether you agree or disagree with the following statements about health care.”
2. People who are unemployed and poor should be able to get the same amount of quality of medical services as people who have good jobs and are paying substantial taxes.
| All | D | R | I | |
| Agree | 56 | 66 | 45 | 59 |
| Disagree | 18 | 12 | 27 | 21 |
3. The government should do whatever is necessary, whatever it costs in taxes, to see that everyone gets the medical care they need.
| All | D | R | I | |
| Agree | 53 | 68 | 34 | 57 |
| Disagree | 23 | 11 | 41 | 27 |
4. It’s fair that people who pay more in taxes (or in health insurance premiums) should be able to get getter medical care than those who pay little or nothing.
| All | D | R | I | |
| Agree | 28 | 19 | 40 | 29 |
| Disagree | 51 | 60 | 41 | 54 |
5. It’s unfair to take money through taxes from the young and middle-aged who work to pay for the medical care of those who are old and sick.
| All | D | R | I | |
| Agree | 22 | 20 | 28 | 22 |
| Disagree | 51 | 58 | 44 | 58 |
6. If the only way to make sure that everyone can get the health care services they need is to have a substantial increase in taxes, we should do it
| All | D | R | I | |
| Agree | 28 | 43 | 15 | 30 |
| Disagree | 42 | 32 | 57 | 45 |
URGENT REQUEST. TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
Please help the Massachusetts healthcare reform community build on what this HCFA blog WSJ entry acknowledges to be true: strong public support for a [cost effective] social model of health insurance. Efforts are underway in every state to achieve this and need your help.
Here in Massachusetts visit http://www.HealthCareForMass.org to sign on.
Help other citizen-activists to get the Massachusetts Health Care Amendment’s “special legislative study” created at the July 12 ConCon to do their work and then report back to the legislature–AND TO THE PUBLIC–so that the HC Amendment will be granted its legally required place on the November 9, 2006 Constitutional Convention calendar. On Nov. 9 the legislators can vote on its merits and if it gets 50 votes it will be place on the next statewide ballot, in Nov. 2008.
The special “study motion” was created and strong-armed to passage at the July 12 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention through prior stealth enactment of “special rules”. This “special rules” tactic was choreographed by nefarious power-brokers and corporate special interests and then acted out by our own elected officials. (See end for list and link to full transcript of ConCon proceedings). It was done as a way to block the citizen-led effort to set state standards requiring healthcare insurance to be comprehensive, affordable and equitably financed and available to all.
I hope you’ll join the effort to not let them kill the HC Amendment in a “study” committee that never does its work and then lets the amendment die.
You can easily learn about the volunteer citizen-led campaign and call or sign-online to get involved at http://www.HealthCareForMass.org
Please help this campaign establish a legal right to affordable healthcare for all in Massachusetts. This volunteer citizen effort is under attack by corporate special interests seeking to protect their windfall profits reaped from our pockets and on the backs of the hundreds of thousands of uninsured who suffer unecessarily and then die prematurely under the current wasteful, dysfunctional, and obscenely unfair health care financing and delivery system that is now in place.
If you are concerned about “how can we afford to do this, even if it is the right thing to do?”: It’s really that we cannot afford NOT to do it! We’re spending enough money in the healthcare system already, more than enough, in fact, to cover everyone. It’s just that 30-40% of that healthcare money is diverted away from care by HMO’s, other insurers, and by the hospital systems in the the state. See http://www.HealthReformProgram.org for economic data and analysis to prove this.
Please call Sen. President Travaglini at 617-722-1500
and ask for his commitment that the study committee on the Health Care Amendment will undertake and complete their work and then report back to the legislature–AND TO THE PUBLIC–so that the HC Amendment will be granted its legally required place on the November 9, 2006 Constitutional Convention Calendar.
State Legislators who testified or acted in other explicit ways on July 12, 2006, to advance the “study committee” tactic include:
Sen. President Tavaglini (D-Boston); Senate Chair, Health Care Finance Committee Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge); House Chair, Health Care Finance Committee; Rep. Patricia Walrath (D- ); House Chair, Cmte on Families and Children, Karen Spilka (D-Framingham); House Chair, Cmte on Insurance Mariano
Complete transcipt of the July 12, 2006, Constitutional Convention proceedings can be found at http://www.HealthCareForMass.org