In the most recent iteration of its tracking poll the Kaiser Family Foundation has determined that there’s broad support for many of the spending provisions of the healthcare bills making their way through the Congress:
This series of questions also shows that when it comes to what Americans want to see in a health care reform package, there is a fair bit of bipartisanship. At least six in ten Democrats, Republicans and political independents agreed that it was “extremely†or “very†important that each of the following elements be passed into law: insurance reforms; tax credits for small businesses; the health exchange; help in closing the Medicare doughnut hole; and an expansion of high risk pools (see table below for details). In one other case – providing subsidy assistance to lower and middle income Americans – support topped 60 percent in two of the three groups (seen as important by 88 percent of Democrats, their top priority, and 64 percent of independents).
Unless these questions are conjoined with the proposals to pay for these measures, all of which require increased spending, the poll is, as it has been in the past, completely and utterly meaningless. Free beer is always popular. Paying the tab, not so much.
