In a poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, Newsweek found that American adults still oppose ObamaCare by margin of 49% to 40%. No surprise there.
Here’s what’s interesting:
Through the power of persuasive telemarketing, Newsweek was able to tip the scales in favor of ObamaCare by focusing on relatively popular features of the Democrats’ health care legislation.
Here’s how they did it…
After asking respondents point blank whether they favor or oppose ObamaCare, Newsweek’s pollster provided the respondents with warm and fuzzy descriptions of some of the Democrat’s health care proposals (much of the wording ripped straight from the White House website). Their language resonated quite well:
- Preventing insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick ― 59% approved
- Requiring health insurance companies to cover anyone who applies, even if they have a pre-existing medical condition ― 76% approved
- Creating a public health insurance option to compete with private plans ― 50% approved
- Health insurance for all Americans, with government help for those who can’t afford it ― 59% approved
- Requiring most businesses to offer health insurance to their employees, with tax incentives for small business owners to do so ― 75% approved
- Creating a new insurance marketplace that allows people without health insurance to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive rates ― 81% approved
Despite Newsweek’s efforts to provide innocuous descriptions of each ObamaCare proposal, two of the eight proposals marketed to the respondants were decidedly unpopular:
- If health coverage is required for everyone, imposing fines on individuals who don’t obtain ― only 28% approved
- Imposing a tax on insurers who offer the most expensive health plans, the so-called Cadillac plans, to help pay for health care reform ― only 34% approved
But many of the most intensely controversial features of ObamaCare were left unmentioned. There was no mention of the Cornhusker kickback, the Louisiana purhchase, jail time for people who fail to comply with the individual mandate, years of new taxation before benefits kick in, increased political control of medical decisions, or the real possibility of loss of private insurance for millions of Americans.
After describing ObamaCare in terms to which most respondents reacted favorably, Newsweek’s interviewers urged the participants to reconsider their opinion of the Democrats’ plan:
Now please think about the proposals I just described to you. ALL of these proposals are included in Barack Obama’s health care reform plan. Having heard these details, what is your OVERALL opinion of Obama’s plan – do you favor it or oppose it?
[emphasis not added]
Newsweek’s marketing effort was successful. With a net shift of about 80 of the 1,099 respondents, 48% supported the plan after hearing the sales pitch.
Newsweek’s conclusion?
In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the majority of Americans are opposed to President Obama’s health-care reform plan—until they learn the details.
But the Newsweek poll is flawed. The information they provided in their “interview” wasn’t education, it was a sales pitch.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Isn't that all socialism is? A sales pitch?
izoneguy (Diary) Sunday, February 21st at 1:24PM EST (link)Socialism is a sham and has no substance.
It is like the thousands of time-share salesmen all over the world.
Sell the sizzle and then leave you with ever increasing maintenance payments.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Ahh, the true opiate of the masses. -nt-
dvdmsr (Diary) Sunday, February 21st at 1:43PM EST (link)Personal Responsibility Conservative
On pre-existing conditions
Kyle-MI (Diary) Sunday, February 21st at 2:30PM EST (link)The problem with the pre-existing conditions question isn’t just that it is popular. There are really two groups of people with pre-existing conditions. One group already had insurance through a previous employer and lost coverage because they had to change insurance plans along with changing jobs. The other group is made up of the young healthy holdouts who think they can get by without any insurance at all and then want the insurance companies to cover them after they get sick. Nearly everyone has sympathy for group one because we realize they are in a no win situation. When any poll asks about pre-existing conditions nearly everyone thinks of group one. You would get a lot different result if you framed the question as applying to group two.