Poll results like this are why I'm very fearful when the government starts monkeying around with health care. By the nature of the beast, politicians tend to watch for where the herd seems to be going and then try to get out in front of it.
From CBS News, a poll which says most Americans want socialized medicine:
Most Americans believe government can play a role in fixing the health care system. Two-thirds say the federal government should guarantee that all Americans have health insurance — and a similar number says providing health insurance for all is a more serious problem than keeping health care costs down.
Eighty-four percent of Americans favor expanding government programs in order to give health insurance to all uninsured children.
Less than one in three, however, say the government would do a better job than private insurance companies at actually providing medical coverage. Forty-four percent said the government would be worse as a health care provider than private companies.
SHOULD GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ALL?
Yes 64%
No 27%
WHICH IS MORE SERIOUS?
Providing health insurance for all 65%
Keeping health care costs down 31%
More Americans do think the government can do a better job than private companies at helping hold down health care costs.
Does anyone else notice the dichotomy here? 84% want government to run things, but less than 33% believe they'd actually do a better job than the private sector? So they're saying, "Let's put the most incompetent agency in charge of the problem." I think if they had a fair and candid picture of the indirect cost (crippling taxes, waiting lists and bureaucratic inefficiency), these poll numbers would be vastly different, but with our socialist-minded media, that isn't going to happen.
Also, while I understand why most Americans think the government will do better at keeping costs down (i.e. fear of capitalism), they're on pretty strong drugs for thinking that.
Government might give the illusion that costs would be lower under socialized medicine (after all, in countries like England and Canada, it's referred to as "free health care" even though the government taxes their socks off to pay for it), but overall costs will go into orbit under a government bureaucracy.
I'm hoping the Zaniya Project task force folks will be smart enough not to buy into ignorant, conflicted polls such as this. But I wouldn't bet on it.
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