I have a couple of interesting polling memos to share. The first is from a Democracy Corps analysis of a number of recent polls on the health care reform bill.
In the wake of the Massachusetts special election, public surveys showed support for health care reform declining to record lows. Yet, in recent weeks, support for reform has started to recover in nearly every public survey and now stands almost even – 46 percent in support compared to 47 percent opposed according to Pollster.com’s current average of public surveys.
I found this next paragraph even more interesting. Why do people oppose HCR? Well over a third oppose it because it doesn't go far enough!
While the uptick in support is certainly encouraging to supporters of reform, almost all of these surveys still show at least pluralities in opposition to the current reform measure being debated. However, when Ipsos probed further, they showed a surprising result. Of the 47 percent who oppose reform, 37 percent do so because reform does not go far enough (meanwhile, of the 41 percent who say they support the current proposals, 12 percent say they do so because they think the current proposals will stop reform from happening). Combining these results shows a majority – 53 percent – that supports reform or something that goes further. Yet, just 35 percent want to kill reform because it goes too far.[iv]
Those 37% of opponents aren't opposed to health care reform, but they don't like the current legislation for some reason -- because it doesn't cover everyone, or they don't like the funding mechanisms, or they think it doesn't do enough to limit profits on illness. These surveys also found that the more people understood the reform package, the more likely they were to support it.
The second item is from the Anzalone-Liszt National Polling Summary that hit my inbox yesterday.
Two-thirds of voters want Congress to keep trying to pass healthcare reform, and a healthy majority (59%) blame politics as usual for the delays. Reform components like the healthcare exchange (81% Favor), requiring insurance companies to offer coverage to all applicants (76% Favor), and helping businesses offer coverage to more employees (75%) are overwhelmingly popular. And despite the chaotic last few months, voters still trust Democrats to better handle healthcare than Republicans.
Those are good numbers. Keep trying up there -- we want you to make some kind of progress. And I'm convinced that after something gets done and the sky doesn't fall, public opinion on HCR will improve. It's nice to get a confirmation that the "Just Vote NO" Republican plan isn't winning over the public.
Folks, I've spent the last two weeks dealing with computer crashes, software glitches, and equipment malfunctions. My apologies for the length of time it took to get this in the can.
Healthcare Justice: The Moral Imperative for Universal Healthcare from a Christian Perspective Saturday, Feb. 27, 10 - 11:30 a.m.
This event offers an overview of problems with the healthcare system, the status of reform legislation, and an affordable solution aimed at just and equitable healthcare for all. We begin by laying out an ethical framework for the discussion. Speakers then address various aspects of healthcare justice and the moral imperative they see as central to the Christian perspective. Audience Q&A will follow.
Location: Faith Presbyterian Church, 5003 Whitesburg Drive, Huntsville. Fellowship Hall. (at intersection of Airport and Whitesburg)
Speakers:
Oliver Fein, MD, president, Physicians for a National Health Program (New York, NY)
Arthur Sutherland, MD, board member, Tennessee Health Care Campaign, and national board member of PNHP (Memphis, TN)
Abi Carlisle-Wilke, M.Div., Senior Associate Pastor, Trinity United Methodist Church (Huntsville, AL).
Moderator: Rev. Frank Broyles, Interfaith Mission Service
Supported by: Interfaith Mission Service; Indian Creek Primitive Baptist Association; Greater Huntsville Interdenominational Ministerial Fellowship.
Coffee, fruit and pastries will be available.
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Point / Counterpoint: Fixing the American Health System Saturday, Feb. 27, 1 - 3 p.m.
Physicians from opposite ends of the policy spectrum will present their solutions to our health care crisis. Dr. Oliver Fein, president of PNHP, will present the case for expanding and improving Medicare to all. Dr. Allan Goldstein, Alabama delegate to the American Medical Association, will focus on quality of healthcare as a way to reduce costs, and the reforms necessary to reach that goal. Audience Q&A will follow.
Location: Crestwood Medical Center, One Hospital Drive, Huntsville. First floor auditorium. (near intersection of Airport and Whitesburg)
Speakers:
Oliver Fein, MD, president, Physicians for a National Health Program (New York, NY)
Allan Goldstein, MD, past president, Medical Society of the State of Alabama; current delegate to the American Medical Association representing Alabama. (Birmingham, AL)
Both events are FREE and open to the public. For more information, call (256) 489-3884, e-mail lahaynes@knology.net or online www.NorthAlabamaHealthcareForAll.org
President Obama is getting together with Republicans (attendees list here) to talk health care reform, starting now and going on pretty much all day. You can watch the discussion on CSPAN or watch online below. The White House feed is Links to the video -- and a special bonus video of Nancy Pelosi below the fold.
The Sunlight Foundation is doing something a little different for this summit ...
We're calling it Sunlight Live and it's going to bring together live blogging by our policy experts, Twitter conversations from across the country and relevant facts on congressional members in attendance at the Summit. Some of the things you can expect to see displayed on Sunlight Live as the politicians debate are campaign contributions that the person speaking has received, their connections to lobbyists and industry, personal finances, and key votes that the leaders have made on health care in the past.
... and I think their coverage may be some of the best on the web. Watch and participate here. The twitter hashtag is #hcrsummit.
"You gotta love these Republicans," Weiner said. "I mean, you guys have chutzpah. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies."
That drew protests from the GOP, so Weiner agreed to use different words:
Make no mistake about it, every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.
Surprisingly, they didn't much like those words either.
As President Obama ponders the fate of health care reform, he would do well to review the mother-of-all-strife between government and private enterprise, the New Deal. Franklin D. Roosevelt's battle with the electricity industry over the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was an uncanny template for the recent health care hostilities. And it might suggest a strategy better than "bipartisanship" for any future administration plans to afflict the powerful.
McWhorter, an Alabama native herself, brings the piece home ...
The relatively progressive TVA areas of Alabama produced the powerful Democratic congressman-turned-senator John Sparkman — Adlai Stevenson's 1952 running mate. But laurels are perishable. Last year, the representative from Sparkman's old district, Parker Griffith, became the first Democrat to defect to the Republicans. Perhaps if Obama had not given up on the public option, the Democrats might have made medical care a right as attainable as the TVA rendered electricity. And the late Ted Kennedy, avatar of health care reform, would not be yielding to the 41st Republican senator.
Wouldn't it be delicious if Senator John Sparkman's grandson replaced that defector Griffith in Congress? Unfortunately, the health care debate will probably be over before that can happen.
With the death of Air America, Head On Radio became the last all-liberal talk network in America. Hosts Bob Kincaid and James Guy were in DC last Thursday when they learned the news, but they were too busy to mourn a failed experiment in left-wing talk media supported by a right-wing revenue format.
An entirely listener-supported experiment in internet broadcasting, practically the entire resources of H.O.R.N. were at the Families USA Conference interviewing advocates for patients' rights and medical issues. They spoke to Representative De Lauro of Connecticut, Anthony Wiener, and other health care reform advocates on a broad range of issues. It was a two day marathon of musical chairs-interviews.
And they might have caught the most important and unheralded aspect of the current reform legislation for Alabama: an end to means testing for Medicaid. Here's Jennifer Sullivan, Senior Health Policy Analyst for Families USA:
After the Mass. Senate special election there was a tendency to pronounce comprehensive health care reform dead -- probably for 15 or 20 years. Not so says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA). Emphasis is mine.
“We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in.”
Democratic aides have already begun assembling a package that would amend the Senate bill.
Sen. Tom Carper, a centrist Democrat from Delaware who played an active role in Senate healthcare talks, said he would reach out to House Democratic centrists to persuade them to vote for the Senate-passed bill along with a sidecar.
“We’ve had some conversations with some of them already,” he said.
Senate sources said that Democratic leaders would wait for political consternation caused by the Massachusetts special election to settle down before making a renewed push.
Go Nancy! It would be a terrible mistake to abandon the effort this close to success.
Slightly off-topic, have you heard that President Obama and Senator-elect Scott Brown are distant cousins?
Ponce de Leon searched in vain for the Fountain of Youth, but at age 67, Congressman Parker Griffith has found the Fountain of Hypocrisy. Or flip-flopping, if you prefer that term.
Ex-Democrat Griffith signed the Club for Growth’s pledge to repeal any health insurance reform legislation which expands health care to more Americans. Good grief! Does he want to repeal the SCHIP expansion as well? That bill, which Griffith voted for, provided health care to about 4 million additional American children. But "Club for Growth Griffith" hates it when more Americans get health care, even kids.
This is a far cry from the "Universal Health Care Griffith" many of us knew four short years ago. That Griffith was captured by a Huntsville Times article of the day, emphasis mine ...
Griffith calls for universal health care
By: Challen Stephens
[Huntsville Times, 5/31/2006]
Starting last year, Parker Griffith draped himself over the political meetings and community gatherings of northern Madison County.
Shaking hands with Huntsville police officers at a memorial service. Helping citizens at an Alabama A&M University forum prepare a list of covenants to improve black neighborhoods. Hosting a Christmas get-together for the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Always pitching universal health care. To retirees. To northeast Huntsville homeowners. To PTA parents. To all who would listen.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield has a monopoly on health insurance in Alabama, he said, and this state can change that by following Massachusetts in offering guaranteed coverage and, therefore, better preventive care for all residents.
Jesse Ferguson, DCCC Southern Regional Press Secretary, offered this pithy comment about Griffith's latest try at reshaping himself to fit a Republican mold:
“Four years ago, Parker Griffith was preaching the gospel of universal health care and now he’s pledged to undo any progress we make on health insurance reform. Watching the pace at which Parker Griffith changes his positions for political reasons could give someone whiplash. Only two years ago, Representative Griffith represented the Democratic Party on the ballot and said he supported universal health care, yet now that he’s joined the ranks of the Republican Party and is against health care reform And, just one month ago, he pledged to return campaign donations and this month he refused to."
Below is a video* I shot on May 15, 2008 at Griffith's official campaign kickoff. He had quite a bit to say about the need for health care reform, although he had already dropped the call for universal coverage, at least in public. Those of us who had known this guy for a while were concerned that his rhetoric was "evolving" so quickly. Griffith staff dismissed those concerns, explaining that "he has to talk this way because of what the district is like."
Back in 2008, running as a Democrat, Parker Griffith made a convincing argument for health care reform:
... 600,000 working Alabamians get up and go to work every day with no health insurance at all. Health insurance is an issue that we and the Congress ... will address ... It is unacceptable for America to spend a billion dollars a week -- a billion dollars a week -- in Iraq and look an American in the face and say we're sorry, but we have no health care for you.
I feel this so strongly, that we need health care reform ...
I didn't have a video camera in 2006 when Griffith was running for the state Senate, but if I had had one, it would not have been hard to catch Parker Griffith talking about, not only the need for health care reform, but the moral imperative for universal health care. From my perspective, his stance on health care was the most attractive thing about him as a candidate.
Is the "Universal Health Care Griffith" locked away in a closet somewhere now that the "Club for Growth Griffith" is ascendant? Can either of them sleep at night?
* I'm only just beginning to sift through LiA's rather extensive library of PG footage. More footage of "Griffith the Democrat" will be on tap soon.
Did Republican State Rep. Cam Ward just inadvertently make the case for health care reform in the context of the Education Budget?
• In 2010 it will cost the State of Alabama $750 a month for each employee in education while the employee with single coverage will pay $2 toward this cost. Family coverage will be considerably higher as will the amount paid out by the employee. • From 2005 to 2010 the state saw the cost of health insurance per education employee go from $6,996 to $9,024 per employee. • Overall the cost of the entire health insurance benefits package for education employees will cost $960 million in 2010.
One thing both parties agree on: Something has to be done to control cost. Unfortunately, at the federal level, only one party is genuinely trying to forge legislation to do that ... and it isn't the GOP Party of NO.
Are the dozen or so Attorneys General -- including Troy King of Alabama -- moving to challenge the sweetheart deal Ben Nelson secured for Nebraska taxpayers motivated by insurance industry money as much as righteous outrage? Think Progress looks at some numbers:
An analysis conducted by the Wonk Room of available campaign finance disclosures for AGs from South Carolina, Washington, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah and Idaho reveals that the health industry contributed heavily to their campaigns:
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster ~ $15,000
Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna ~ $24,645
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox ~ $12,600
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem ~ $20,700
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett ~ $24,300
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff ~ $9,500
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden ~ $10,100
Troy King didn't make that list and when I checked Follow the Money, it looks like insurers weren't big backers for him in 2006, although he got a lot from the Association of Home Health Agencies and the Medical Association. Both those groups stand to lose if health care reform passes. However, the real interesting point here will be whether Troy reports a bunch of insurance company contributions on his 2009 disclosure forms later this month. He's in a tough primary and obviously beating the bushes for funds, so this challenge to the Nelson deal might have been a windfall for King's campaign coffers.
Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, December 18.
1. Jon Walker is concerned that Ben Nelson could get his way and gut "the single best remaining piece of reform, Medicaid expansion." Walker concludes that "If using reconciliation is the only way to protect the Medicaid expansion, the decision to use it should be a no-brainer for every real Democrat."
2. Jon Walker suggests that "if you are are going to tax 'Cadillac' plans, you need to index it to make sure it only ever taxes actual 'Cadillac' plans." To accomplish this goal, Walker suggests "index[ing] the cap to roughly 165% of the average premium on the Federal employer health benefit (FEHB) exchange."
3. Jane Hamsher points to a new poll indicating that 38% of Americans favor the individual mandate to buy insurance, while 51% oppose it. Hamsher adds, "When it appears in the ads of a Republican challenger who notes that the IRS will act as Aetna's collection agency, I bet those numbers get dramatically worse."
4. Jon Walker calls Ben Nelson's latest idea - to make states "opt in" to health reform - "literally and completely insane." C'mon, tell us how you really fell about Ben Nelon's stupid idea, Jon. :)
5. Jon Walker writes that "Ezra Klein has a new, strange, and incorrect defense of the individual mandate in the Senate bill." Walker argues that "[t]he argument that removing the individual mandate would price unemployed people, like the reader, out of the individual market is not true."
6. Jane Hamsher discusses "the impoverished left/right dialectic that dominates the media coverage of politics, and its inadequacy when it comes to discussing the dynamics of the health care debate." It's a fascinating discussion, but here's a sampling: "With unemployment at 10%, the idea that you can pass a bill whose only merit is that 'liberals hate it' just because the media will eat it up and print your talking points in the process is so cynical and short-sighted it's hard to comprehend anyone would pursue it. It reflects a total insensitivity to the rage that is brewing on the popular front, which is manifest in every single poll out there." Good stuff.
7. Jon Walker goes after Ezra Klein again, this time for "[doing] the discussion on health reform a big disservice by making false claims about what could, in fact, start a race to the bottom in the insurance market."
8. Jon Walker argues that the fact there is a "hardship waiver," as well as restrictions on undocumented immigrants to buy insurance on the new exchange ("even if they were willing to pay full price with no tax credits") both "undercut arguments for an individual mandate."
9. Finally, I've got a state blog roundup, including lots of discussion about "Liebercare," "Loserman," and Jane Hamsher taking "a corporate conman to the woodshed."
This was a fascinating, sometimes infuriating, occasionally highly entertaining week in health care reform. Next week promises to be more of the same. Stay tuned!
Joe Lieberman's giveaway to Connecticut insurance companies health care bill gets 33% support.
Stalin has a 37% favorability rating.
However... add the public option back to the bill and support for is soars to 59%.
My favorite question:
President Obama has said he favors a public health insurance option. Senator Joe Lieberman is widely credited with forcing Senate Democrats to take the public option off the table in order to win his vote. Do you think President Obama should have done more to pressure Lieberman to allow the public option to move forward?
YES
NO
NOT SURE
ALL
63%
29%
8%
Men
59%
34%
7%
Women
67%
24%
9%
Democrats
87%
10%
3%
Republicans
13%
76%
11%
Independents
72%
18%
10%
Look at those numbers for the coveted "Independent" vote!
In 2006, Karl Rove confidently predicted a Republican sweep - in defiance of poll numbers - calling his calculations "THE math." What kind of math is Harry Reid using? Not to mention the Democratic leadership and President Obama....
They're getting ready to pass a bill that barely a third of Americans support when they could instead pass real reform with a public option supported by 59%.
Hey, I wasn't a math major, but even I can see which is the better deal - both for the Democrats and for the country.
Some kind of health care reform bill will probably get through the US Senate this month or next. But it's been a long, excruciatingly slow process thanks to Republicans and a handful of Democrats (I'm looking at you Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson) and if health care takes up all their time, something must be getting pushed off the schedule. What is being lost because of the obstructionism?
Reading between the lines of this article from The Hill, it's probably immigration reform and the Employee Free Choice Act, at minimum. Nancy Pelosi is smart enough that she isn't going to make her members vote on tough legislation just to watch it die in the Senate.
The Speaker recently assured her freshman lawmakers and other vulnerable members of her caucus that a vote on immigration reform is not looming despite a renewed push from the White House and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The House will not move on the issue until the upper chamber passes a bill, Pelosi told the members.
...
“The Speaker has told members in meetings that we’ve done our jobs,” a Democratic leadership aide said. “And that next year the Senate’s going to have to prove what it can accomplish before we go sticking our necks out any further.”
It's the right decision on Pelosi's part, but it's extremely frustrating to those who contributed money, sweat or time to achieve the precious 60 Democratic Senators, only to see that body virtually grind to a halt under GOP delaying tactics.
Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thursday, December 17.
1. Jon Walker discusses "The Unholy Trilogy For Insurance Profits: Individual Mandate, Broad Age Rating, And Hardship Exemption." According to Walker, "Forcing the young to buy coverage with huge government subsidies, but having a way to price the old out of the market, is in fact the health insurance companies' dream." Is that the way to keep them from running a 2009 version of "Harry and Louise," to make their "dream" come true? Hmmmm.
2. Jane Hamsher reports on her MSNBC appearance this morning with Dylan Ratigan, at which time he made her argument for her, that "40 million new customers forced to buy your product with no competition and no regulatory body to oversee it is a pretty sweet deal." For more, see item #1, above, on the "health insurance companies' dream."
3. Jon Walker continues his back-and-forth on whether or not to "kill the bill" with Nate Silver of 538.com. In this installment, Walker accuses Silver of responding to his answers, "but only to a straw man, crib notes version of my answers." Who knew that dueling, wonky, blogger diaries on the intricate details of health care reform legislation could be so enthralling? :)
4. Speaking of exciting, I definitely recommend that you check out the heated exchange between Mary Landrieu and Howard Dean last night on Hardball. Jane Hamsher transcribes it, which is particularly cool given that it's not easy to transcribe spittle flying around a TV studio. Heh.
5. Jon Walker responds to an article by Jonathan Cohn, which tries to "defend the individual mandate in this bill by claiming the Netherlands also has an individual mandate." According to Walker, "The problem is the health care system produced by the Senate bill would be nothing at all like the health system in the Netherlands," and he lays out exactly why that is the case.
6. Jon Walker reports that Ben Nelson "has rejected Harry Reid's latest compromise on the abortion language," and that Nelson "is trying to go for the full Stupak amendment." Walker adds that "[w]e wouldn't need to be worrying about Ben Nelson's mountain of demands right now if they would just go with reconciliation." So true.
7. Jon Walker rebuts one of the "better-sounding arguments for passing the Senate bill", that "we can fix it later." The problem with that argument, of course, is that Walker "can't imagine there being a time anytime soon where the Democrats have more power." Neither can anyone else, which is why they need to get as much done now as possible, on health care reform and on a whole host of other issues. But they won't get those things done if they keep letting John McCain's Best Friend Forever pull a "Liebercare" on everything. Once again, if this hasn't been stressed enough, it's time to go to reconciliation and pass strong, progressive health care reform legislation now, not "later."
8. Last but not least, do NOT miss Scarecrow's post on the confrontation between Lanny Davis and Jane Hamsher on the Ed Show this evening. According to Scarecrow, "After just one round with Jane on the Ed Show, Lanny's credibility was in need of a waaaambulance. He was last seen being wheeled out on Joe Lieberman's gurney, on the way to the emergency ward." Ouch!
Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Wednesday, December 16. We'll call this the "Joe must go" edition.
1. Jon Walker writes about the "sad defeat of Dorgan's drug re-importation amendment, which would have saved American consumers billions on their prescription drugs." Walker notes that "[a]llowing Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe was one of Obama's campaign promise on health care," and also that this is a "very popular, bipartisan idea that would actually help 'bend the cost curve' on our health care spending." But now, it looks like it's not going to happen, and that's extremely unfortunate.
2. Jane Hamsher comments on the story that the White House is "very not pleased...with Dr. Dean speaking out about health care reform and this plan." The amazing thing is that the White House isn't upset with Joe Lieberman for all the bad stuff he's been doing, but is upset with Howard Dean for saying that we should scrap the current Senate bill, go to reconciliation and get a much stronger bill with public option, Medicare buy-in, etc. It's surreal.
3. Jane Hamsher reports on remarks by Sen. Russ Feingold, who said, "This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don't think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth."
4. Jon Walker demolishes the "great big myth that reconciliation would not work for health care reform." According to Walker, "That is pure nonsense," as "reconciliation would still protect the guts of reform." In addition, "provisions [not related to the budget] will only be removed if they fail to get 60 votes to wave the Byrd rule for those provisions." So why aren't they doing this?
5. Jon Walker argues that the health care "bills could easily be redesigned to increase insurance coverage by roughly 30 million Americans at a fraction of the cost if we drop the massive giveaway to the insurance companies, and the individual mandate." A new, revamped bill would contain "insurance market reforms," "the House's employer mandate and slightly increased small business tax credits," "Medicaid expansion to 150%-200% FPL," "Maintaining or expanding CHIP program," and a "permanent COBRA expansion with subsidies." According to Walker, such a bill, "depending on design, should cover close to 30 million more Americans, and for less than a net cost of $500 billion" - "a fraction of the cost to the government (with a bill done through reconciliation), and without enriching the health insurance companies trying to kill real reform." Again, why aren't they doing this?
7. Michael Whitney comments on "Jello Jay Rockefeller's rant against Howard Dean on MSNBC this afternoon," in which he asked, "So what do I do? do I take my football and run home and sulk?" Whitney's punchline: "No, you're going to kick it!" Heh.
8. Jane Hamsher notes that Robert Gibbs never called Joe Lieberman "irrational," as he essentially did about Howard Dean earlier today.
10. Jon Walker explains "How CBO Director Doug Elmendorf Wrote The Health Care Bill." In brief, Elmendorf put together a memo last May which "basically put the absolute limits on what Democrats would even attempt in health care reform." According to Walker, "There is no real logic to it, he simply decided what he thought was enough regulation to make something part of the budget." Somehow, given where we are right now, ending today's health care update with the words "no real logic" seems highly appropriate.
Speakers: 
Here are the 
