I was dismayed today when I opened my email and got this poll from congressorg@capwiz.com:
SHOULD AMERICANS PAY MORE FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM?
Although final Congressional action is still many months away, several House and Senate committees this week are holding hearings on health care reform - and the costs associated with it. The nation spent $2.4 trillion on health care in 2008, and yet 46 million Americans have no health coverage at all.
President Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders hope to pass a reform bill by the end of the year.
As a first step to funding an ambitious effort to attain universal coverage, Obama has proposed creating a $630 billion trust fund in his budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Attaining universal health care will almost inevitably cost most Americans - businesses and taxpayers - more. But Obama argues that the cost of doing nothing is more extreme.
"If we don't tackle health care," he said at the White House health care summit last week, "we're going to break the bank"
Should Americans pay more so their fellow citizens can have health insurance? Tell President Barack Obama and Congress how you feel by voting in our action poll.
The way this poll question was asked makes it seem that Americans are not already paying more for health care:
ACTION POLL: (Cast Your Vote by Sending a Message)
Remember - it's not what the opinion polls say, but what Congress hears.
• Americans Should Pay More for Universal Health Care
• Americans Should NOT Pay More for Universal Health Care
This is one of those "have you stopped beating your wife" questions. The company I work for has Humana Insurance and every year we get higher premiums and higher deductibles. Yet it is Obama's plan that will "inevitably" cost businesses and taxpayers more.
Americans are already paying about twice as much for privately insured health care as countries with not-for-profit health care systems. Yet this poll phrases the argument in terms of paying more as opposed to eliminating the private insurer middlemen with their outrageous overhead, premiums and cumbersome and inconsistent rules, which increase the cost of health care.
Who is going to vote "Yes" on such a question? No one wants to pay more than the outrageous amounts we already pay for health care. Phrasing the question of universal health care in such a way practically guarantees that respondents will vote no. I voted yes, but had to comment that the existing for-profit system is the problem, and that single payer plans in other countries were far more successful in both reducing costs and increasing life expectancy.
This is a push poll, period. I'd like to know who at Congress.org is responsible for phrasing these poll questions. It's likely that the health care insurance companies wrote this question.
And congress is going to act on health care based on this Roll Call poll?