Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 9/28-30. All adults. MoE 2% (8/31-9/3 results)
Do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans?
Favor Oppose Not Sure
All 59 (58) 34 (34) 7 (8)
Dem 84 (81) 11 (12) 5 (7)
Rep 24 (26) 71 (69) 5 (5)
Ind 58 (57) 33 (33) 9 (10)
Northeast 72 (69) 20 (22) 8 (9)
South 46 (47) 48 (46) 6 (7)
Midwest 62 (61) 31 (31) 7 (8)
West 61 (59) 32 (33) 7 (8)
No movement, in the toplines, outside the poll's 2% MoE, nor in the indie numbers. Dems are up +4 on the public option, Republicans are down 4. Still, note that a quarter of Republicans support the public option -- far more "bipartisanship" than you'll see in DC on this issue.
If a candidate for public office opposed a public health insurance option to compete with private insurance plans, would that make you more or less likely to vote for that candidate or would it have no real effect on your vote?
More Less No Effect
All 22 (23) 36 (36) 42 (41)
Dem 5 (8) 61 (58) 34 (34)
Rep 61 (58) 7 (12) 32 (30)
Ind 16 (17) 32 (32) 52 (51)
Northeast 9 (12) 49 (46) 42 (42)
South 37 (36) 22 (25) 41 (39)
Midwest 18 (19) 40 (40) 42 (41)
West 20 (21) 37 (37) 43 (42)
Republicans and Democrats are mirror images of each other. But look at indies -- they are twice as likely to punish a legislator for voting against the public option than reward.
We asked a new question this week to test the public's appetite for "bipartisanship":
Which of the following scenarios do you prefer? (ROTATED): Getting a health care bill with the choice of a strong public health insurance option to compete with private insurance plans that's supported only by Democrats in Congress, OR Getting a health care bill with no public option that has the support of Democrats and a handful of Republicans?
Option No Option Not Sure
All 52 39 9
Dem 80 13 7
Rep 22 70 8
Ind 47 42 11
Only 39 percent of Americans care much about "bipartisanship". And it's worse than that, because Republicans don't really care about bipartisanship, but about killing the public option. In fact, this question tracks the first one very closely. In other words, if you want a public option, you don't give a damn about bipartisanship. If you don't want it, you'd obviously rather see a bill that doesn't include it. Only four percent of Democrats defect on this question (2 points go to "no option", the other two to "undecided"), while 2 percent of Republicans who support the public option defect. They also don't care much about bipartisanship.
The biggest change is among independents. While 58 percent support the public option, 11 of them defect to the bipartisan compromise position. Even then, just 42 percent of Independents prefer bipartisanship to having a public option. The rest either prefer a Democratic-only public option bill, or aren't sure.
While the political and media establishments inside the Beltway are obsessed with the virtues of bipartisanship, a clear majority of the American people don't care.