{"id":1658,"date":"2010-02-25T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/25\/as-summit-begins-mixed-messages-on-healthcare\/"},"modified":"2010-02-25T08:56:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T12:56:00","slug":"as-summit-begins-mixed-messages-on-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/25\/as-summit-begins-mixed-messages-on-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"As summit begins, mixed messages on healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An organization backed by Newt Gingrich has <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.pos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/10101-health-care-summit-interview-schedule-press.pdf\">just released a new poll<\/a> that tries to capture the public mood on healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>As Democrats begin their final push for a reform package, these numbers give a pretty good snapshot of the complicated terrain they&#8217;re navigating.<\/p>\n<p>The big number is 62%.  That&#8217;s the portion of Americans who think we need major reform or a complete overhaul.<\/p>\n<p>A third of us, meanwhile, just want minor tweaks or no change.  (Only 6% wanted no change.)<\/p>\n<p>The second big take-away is that 61% want either &#8220;government-run health care coverage&#8221; for all Americans, or government programs that &#8220;help Americans who can least afford health care coverage to purchase it.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Again, about a third of Americans don&#8217;t want the government playing a more significant role.  <\/p>\n<p>So by modern American standards, there&#8217;s a pretty broad consensus that big changes are needed and the government should play a larger role in healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>But here&#8217;s the wrinkle:  A narrow majority of those same Americans hate this particular Democratic bill.<\/p>\n<p>52% say they don&#8217;t want this reform package to pass.  Only 40% favor it.  <\/p>\n<p>The bottom line?<\/p>\n<p>These numbers aren&#8217;t insurmountable for Democrats.  There&#8217;s a lot here for them to work with.<\/p>\n<p>But they have to prove to Americans that their plan is smart and affordable.  When asked what the top goal for reform should be, here were the top four:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>39% Making health care more affordable<br \/>34% Allowing physicians and patients to be in charge of making medical decisions<br \/>31% Reducing the power of health insurance and drug companies<br \/>26% Guaranteeing access to health insurance even with preexisting conditions<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In case this debate strikes you as academic, consider that we have half a dozen nursing homes in the North Country perched on the edge of closure.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re threatened because of healthcare costs and a system for compensating doctors, nursing homes and hospitals that no longer makes sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An organization backed by Newt Gingrich has just released a new poll that tries to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}