Crossposted at DemConWatch
The first poll is out asking about Single Payer support. Time Magazine commissioned a pollfrom SRBI, which found that 55% of Americans want a major overhaul. 60% think the insurance companies are doing a fair or poor job of providing services. 55% think the American health care system is fair or poor. 90% want tax breaks for small businesses to make health insurance more affordable. 80% want pre-existng conditions covered. 63% want coverage for all Americans, even if the government needs to subsidize it. 56% want a public option.
The Single Payer question read:
Would you favor or oppose a program that creates a national single-payer plan similar to Medicare for all, in which the government would provide healthcare insurance to all Americans?
49% of the respondents said "yes".
Believe it or not, that's a huge number. First, because most people don't actually know what "Single Payer" means. Second, because the opposition is out in force. And third, because based on other answers in the poll, it's likely that the sample was skewed.
The poll indicated that 11% of the respondents were uninsured. That would be about 38 million Americans. We know the true number of the uninsured is closer to 50 million. Thus, this group was underrepresented in the sample. If one is uninsured, it's likely that one would be predisposed to favour any option which would allow him/her to get insurance for him/herself and family.
In addition, the poll over-represented the educated, with 43% having either a college or post-graduate degree. This is almost double the ratefound by the US Census, which was 24.4% in 2000. Thus, the survey respondents are more likely to have higher paying jobs, and likely better health coverage.
They under-represented Hispanics, who are the most likely group to be lacking in coverage. Hispanics represented only 9% of the sample.
Finally, SRBI said it included "limited numbers" of cell phone users. They don't break out that information, but we all know that calling land lines under-represents the young, the poor, and the uninsured. Further, this skews the data old. SRBI had a survey population of 20% over age 65, while the actual number is about 12%.
Putting it all together, and applauding the first national survey which even asks about Single Payer, it's obvious that there is a lot of support. It's further likely that if they had more realistic sample demographics, the numbers would be higher.