The latest ABC/WaPo poll confirms what we've always known, the public option is very popular:
Americans divide about evenly on the reform plan and Obama's handling of health care alike – neither better nor worse for him since summer. But 57 percent support one of the plan's most contentious elements, a government-sponsored insurance option, and that soars to 76 percent if it's limited to those who can't get affordable private insurance.
That makes the public option more popular than Democrats in Congress, who lead Republicans 51-39, and equally as popular as Obama, who gets a 57 percent approval. Obama's approval on the single issue of healthcare reform, however, is 48 percent. Maybe he ought to rethink that whole leaving the public option to Congress thing and start advocating for it.
And here's a key component that so far only Research 2000/Daily Kos has questioned: what's more important, Republican votes or the public option?
Indeed, Americans by 51-37 percent in this latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they'd rather see a plan pass Congress without Republican support, if it includes a public option based on affordability, than with Republican backing but no such element.
This mirrors the findings from our poll, done a few weeks ago:
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.
Maybe President Snowe doesn't really matter so much after all.