In today's WSJ I was shocked to read the results of an NBC/WSJ Poll that says that 73% of the populace wants "some sort of public option." (link below)
Really?
73% of the populace wants to have the government run the healthcare system in an action that will by almost all accounts either run the private insurance out of business or shift a large percentage of costs to those who wish to have private insurance? I am incredulous.
A majority wants to pattern match their healthcare on the high levels of service currently experienced by those healthcare system in the veterans administration, or the service in the US postal system or the service with Amtrak? Really?
A large majority of people are willing to let the US healthcare system "scare" away the best and the brightest, and to encourage that talent to flock to other industries, eventually putting the level of talent in US healthcare equal to the talent (and effort and incentive) put forth in the government entities mentioned above? I don't believe it.
Are you telling me that most Americans have not heard the calls for REAL healthcare reform that is tort reform and the reform of removing the government from the areas of healthcare they currently control and that these government interventions are fingered by many as being the true cause of expensive healthcare? How is this possible?
This poll is saying that most of the people that buy all types of valuable goods and services in the markets every day, including hundreds and thousands of creative and valuable insurance products that protect every item of value and every contingency in our lives, don't believe that the free market can solve the insurance for healthcare problem efficiently and justly? After all this evidence they cannot see that the free market does not solve problems only when it is blocked from doing so by agency problems and from mandated, mis-aligned incentives, usually from statists and interventionists? Again, I am incredulous.
All this on the day when the public option has (hopefully) died from lack of support from an independent minded senator from Connecticut?
Either the American people are a lot less wise than I thought or I WANT TO SEE THAT POLL AND THE WORDING OF THE QUESTIONS. I call on all "polls" to make transparent the nature and exact wording of the questions asked and the audience that participated -- because I cannot believe that this poll is accurate.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/10/27/wsjnbc-news-poll-public-attitudes-on-the-public-option/
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I completely agree!! There are only two reasons why this number could be so high (1) stilted poll questions ("Do you think the government should help poor people suffering from a treatable disease find proper medical care" or "Do you think insurance companies should charge consumers whatever they want even if it prevents poor people from receiving quality healthcare?") or (2) 73% of Americans do not understand basic economics or how Capitalism works. Here are the poll questions I want asked (A) "Should regulations on insurance companies be lifted so healthcare insurance could be sold across state lines and there could be more competition in the marketplace, much like car insurance is?" (B)"Do you think that government should stop penalizing individuals and allow them to take the same deductions as employers if they choose to buy personal health insurance?" (C) "Do you think the government could offer you the same quality of care in health insurance as a private company?" .... the list goes on and on. Polls are useless unless there is transparency into the questions asked.
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