Two new polls offer a look at the
public’s sometimes contradictory opinions on health care reform, where more
details are not always a good thing
Colorado is poised to embark on what could be one of the most
ambitious re-orderings of the health care system in decades.
Lawmakers are set this coming session to do battle over a plan to offer a “public
option” for health insurance that allows state officials to dictate hospital prices. A
plan to import prescription drugs could soon be expanded. Employers are banding together to negotiate better health
care deals.
But how state residents feel about this remains a bit of a
mystery. And two new polls out from two advocacy groups offer a clue to that
uncertainty.
First, a poll this month from the pro-reform group
Healthier Colorado shows voters in the state have an appetite for change.
The poll, of 500 Colorado active voters from across the state,
taken through live interviews over the phone, found that 45% of Coloradans
think their health care is unaffordable and more than 80% think prescription
drugs cost too much.
“One thing that really stood out for us is people feel there needs
to be a change, that our current health care system is just too expensive.”
said Kyle Piccola, a senior director at Healthier Colorado.
And, when Healthier Colorado asked voters how they
thought the system should change, they favored big initiatives. Nearly
two-thirds of voters said they support either a Medicare-for-All-style
universal-coverage plan or a public option plan that would give people under
the age of 65 the option of buying coverage through Medicare. Only 34% said
they wanted to keep the existing system, built largely on health insurance
provided by employers.
The views expressed in the poll echo what Denver-based health care
consultant Billy Wynne said during the Colorado Health Institute’s annual
conference this month: “I think the time is overdue for disruptive change.”
But, significantly, the Healthier Colorado poll didn’t dive into
the fine details of these plans. It asked voters whether they support the idea,
not a specific proposal. And another poll out this month provides evidence that
health reform proposals become less popular when given details that make them
more real.
The second poll, from the group Colorado’s
Health Care Future, asked 800 registered voters in online surveys
how they feel about the proposal for a public option put forth by the Polis
administration.
The Polis plan would not be a Medicare buy-in — the kind of idea
Healthier Colorado polled on. Instead, it would empower state regulators to set
the prices hospitals can charge people who have coverage through the public
option. It would at first be offered only to those who buy coverage on their
own, without help from their job, but it would likely be expanded to small
employers after a couple years. Insurance companies would administer the plan,
so there would be no direct financial risk to the state budget. Both insurance
companies and hospitals would be required to participate.
In other words, it has enough detail to it for groups to be
specific in their opposition — which is just what has happened, with both the
insurance and the hospital industries in Colorado coming out against the plan. Colorado’s Health Care
Future is the local offshoot of The Partnership for America’s Health Care
Future, whose membership draws heavily from the insurance,
hospital and pharmaceutical industries.
And, so, the Colorado’s Health Care Future poll found some
skepticism about the Polis plan. Only 45% said they support it — compared to
25% who said they oppose it and 24% who said they were uncertain. Nearly
three-quarters of respondents said they were satisfied with their current
coverage and wanted the state to work on improving the existing system rather
than create a new system with heavy government controls. Lastly, 39% said they
don’t trust the state government to design an effective health insurance plan,
compared to 34% who said they do.
“Voters’ top concern is lowering health care costs,” said Phillip
Morris, a partner of the Washington, D.C.-based Locust Street Group, which
conducted the poll for Colorado’s Health Care Future, “and 79% are unwilling to
pay any more than they currently do for health care to fund the state
government option.”
This seesaw between loving the big picture but not necessarily the
details is pretty common nationally, too.
Polls by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation have shown that
most voters don’t understand the details of the Medicare for
All plans, but they tend to support the idea less once they hear about some of the potential consequences.
This dynamic is a big reason why Democratic presidential
candidates have been backing away from supporting Medicare
for All and are now shifting their support toward more gradual implementations
of the idea or toward a Medicare buy-in — which voters are more likely to support.
It also means that supporters of big changes to the health care
system, both nationally and in Colorado, have plenty of work to do to persuade
the public they’re the right changes to make.
“As always,” Larry Levitt, the executive vice president of the
Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote on Twitter recently, “the political challenge for
those opposing the health care industry is developing a coalition with clout
and money to counter it.”
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