Public Health Care Plan Option Gains Favor with Americans Amid Health Insurer Mishaps

As federal lawmakers get closer to drafting a health care reform bill, recent polls show that public support for health care reform has increased and more Americans support the inclusion of a public health care plan as part of the reform.

A September Kaiser Research Foundation poll showed that 57 percent of Americans believe that health care reform is more important than ever, up from 53 percent in August.  Additionally, a joint poll conducted last week by the Washington Post and ABC News showed that 57 percent of those surveyed would support a government created health insurance plan to compete with private insurers, with the majority of those responding saying they were strongly in favor of a government run plan.

Support for a government run plan jumps to 76 percent if the government plan is run by the states and available only to people who did not have a choice of affordable private insurance.  Under those conditions, the Washington Post/ABC News poll shows a majority of Republicans say they would support a government plan.

The polls suggest that momentum has shifted towards more government-involved policies because more Americans can’t afford insurance or believe they would be better off.  Kaiser’s September survey showed that 33 percent of those polled reported that they or someone in their household had problems paying their medical bills during the past year. The percentage of Americans who reported having trouble paying bills jumped nine percent since August, and the total, according to Kaiser, is the highest recorded in nearly a year.  On top of that, 56 percent of those polled said they have put off getting medical care over the last 12 month because of the cost.

Larry McNeely, health care advocate for U.S. PIRG, said he believes support for health reform and a public health plan option also is growing because Americans who avoided thinking about health care reform can no longer ignore it.  He said Americans soon will renew their annual insurance choices through their employer-sponsored plans and many will be hit with increases in their annual premiums and deductibles (“Workers Pick up the Tab for Rising Health Care Premiums in Employer-Sponsored Family Plans,” Sept. 17).

“They are looking at a paycheck every week, and wages are barely inching up at all.  The only thing going up in this economy is the amount they are paying to insurance companies,” said McNeely. “That alone provides real motivation to support health reform.”

McNeely added that recent legislation action on health reform and attempts to by some health care insurers to mislead the public about how the Senate Finance Committee bill would affect seniors and people with private insurance hurt health insurers’ credibility.

“I believe Americans saw through those as scare tactics,” McNeely said.  “But I think the ridiculous tactics (by health insurers) backfired with the media and policy makers. “

The House Judiciary Committee voted 20-9 on Wednesday to strip health insurers of the federal antitrust protections that have shielded them from federal investigations into price fixing and other business practices. The bill was supported by three republications.

“The industry overplayed their hand,” McNeely said. “There is a direct line between that inflammatory and bogus scare tactics and a new willingness on behalf of folks in Congress to make sure health care insurance companies are competing on their own merit.”

But Joseph Antos, a health care policy expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said unless the bill completely repeals the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act and allows insurers to sell policies across state lines, the House Judiciary Committee’s bill has little meaning.

“It’s just a naked threat,” Antos said.  “It doesn’t do anything. No action is necessary. You could have a federal investigation, but under what conditions, it doesn’t say. It’s just a threat. They (The White House) are trying to kick the insurers and AHIP in line.”