With health care reform at a near standstill in the House and Senate, lawmakers in are planning to target the health insurance companies, painting then as “villains” that can be struck down by a government-run health insurance plan.
But poll numbers suggest the public may not be easily persuaded by that argument as they remain focused on the implications of a several health care proposals Congress is weighing.
When the House adjourned Friday for the month of August, lawmakers took home a kit from the leadership, laying out how they should make the argument for the House-proposed $1 trillion health care overhaul bill, which creates a public-run insurance option.
The recess package includes a card that reads, “Health insurance reform to hold insurance companies accountable, putting you and your doctors back in charge, not the insurance companies.”
It’s a theme that could resonate with constituents who have waged battle with their insurers over the denial of benefits and high premiums. The card promotes lower health care costs, higher quality care and more choices of plans under the health insurance reform proposal the House is considering.
But many Americans, poll numbers indicate, are satisfied with their insurance coverage. And polls also signal that some doubt whether the government might make health care in America worse, not better.
A June survey conducted by Democratic pollsters found 71 percent of voters were happy with their insurance coverage. A July 29 Gallup poll found that just 26 percent of respondents believe that health care reform will improve their personal medical care.
Those sentiments are resonating with many moderate Democrats in Congress who hail from Republican-heavy districts and are now putting the bill’s passage is in doubt in both the House and Senate.
“They are trying to take the public’s mind off the fact that they are selling a turkey,” said Bob Moffit, a health care analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted that the recess strategy is simply to explain to the public how they can save money and get better coverage under the health care reform legislation, though she added, “We could probably have a dozen cards if you want to talk about the insurance and all of their violations.”
Pelosi said Democrats must counter the millions of dollars the insurance companies will spend trying to build opposition to the reform plan.
“You have to address the opposition,” Pelosi said.
The idea of vilifying the insurance companies seems to have its genesis in White House polling.
In a speech he delivered in Canada last month, Obama’s chief pollster Joe Benenson talked about the need to use polling “in a creative way so you can shape your message successfully.”
Benenson said the White House had been able improve support for a public option because people “like the idea of having a public plan that can compete with the insurance companies because they think that insurance companies have been the villains here, not the government.”
