Sir Lance-alot wrote:
Yes, if you throw in scare tactics to the question by saying: "do you support a public option if... nightmare scenario a, b, or c occurs ?" , then of course people will show less support. But since PART of the bill is requiring businesses to offer health coverage for their workers, it is silly to include that in the question:
Ah, the crux of it all... or the employers are at liberty to pay a punitive tax and dump employees on to the public plan, or, as Carnivore 69 accurately articulated, will look for ways to circumvent the obligation by hiring more temps, part-time workers, or squeazing more productivity out of an already stressed workforce, or simply moving operations overseas, especially once they see taxes going skyward. It is a very RELEVANT part of the inquiry, and it is the Trojan Horse that I speak of, because no private enterprise can compete with a government subsidy, and government has demonstrated absolutely no effectiveness in restraining medical cost or moral hazard - quite the contrary. So, no, I don't agree and neither do others, from the same poll:
"Intensity remains stronger among those who oppose the push to change the nation’s health care system: 21% Strongly Favor the plan while 43% are Strongly Opposed."
As for Obama, I'm simply not Pollyanish, like you and so many others. I don't care what you think of the credibility of the next two links I'm posting. You would do well to add two and two together and see that this social engineering bullshit needs to take a back seat to much bigger fish before we go guaranteeing a lifetime of insulin shots and angioplasties, statins, and stents for the commensurate proportion of the overall population, with it's 30%+ obesity rate and growing, that already eats up over 50% of the cost of medicare:
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc091116.htmhttp://www.financialsense.com/Market/daily/monday.htmI can't even believe we're talking about healthcare and more moral hazard when it's a problem so easily solved by other means than government, particularly with the economic time bomb ticking. But it's THE Holy Grail I suppose. Tick, tick, tick...