Over at PowerLine John Hinderaker highlighted a Rasmussen poll which asked Americans if they favored “single-payer” health insurance. (Translation: socialized medicine.) A whopping (though not surprising) 62% of Democrats favor Single-Payer. However, among the public at large only 32% of Americans support it.
Hinderaker then demonstrated the problem that faces the Democrats and President Obama as they seek to move forward with the plan of a so-called “public option” (health insurance offered through the federal government which people can choose to buy):
So it’s hard for Democrats to stay consistent. Democrats can’t win primaries unless they advocate “universal health care”–another euphemism–but at the same time, they can’t admit that Obama meant it when he said that his proposal would lead to the extinction of private insurance. Likewise at the micro level: Democrats are required to become indignant at the idea that their plan will force everyone to buy abortion coverage; they say the bill doesn’t say that.
One figure from the poll that jumped out at me that Hinderaker didn’t comment on was the percentage of Republicans against Single-Payer: 87%.
Who are the 13% of Republicans that favor socialized medicine? I’d like to meet someone who identifies as a Republican but favors Single-Payer. What a strange creature they must be! Such a voter is certainly a beast that I guess we hear about possibly existing in theory but frankly I’d like more than just the grainy film footage we already have:
A pro-socialized medicine Republican emerges from the wild
