Loading ...Most center on how to pay for plan or hold down costs
By: Jeffrey M. Jones
Americans are skeptical that President Obama’s healthcare plan will be able to accomplish all he intends — to expand coverage to nearly all Americans without raising taxes on middle-class Americans or affecting the quality of care. Thirty-eight percent believe his plan will achieve all of these goals, while 60% do not think it will.
Republicans are nearly united in thinking the plan will not accomplish these stated goals (90% believe it will not), and most independents (64%) agree. Two in three Democrats (66%), on the other hand, express optimism that the plan will achieve these aims.
These results are based on a Sept. 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted in the days after Obama’s prime-time address to Congress last Wednesday. The speech served as a renewed call to action for the American public and legislators to support healthcare reform. However, it does not appear to have materially increased support for the plan, and the poll reveals that Americans have doubts that the plan, as Obama described it, will work.
For example, less than a majority (43%) say they are confident that Obama’s plan can be paid for mostly through cost savings in Medicare and other parts of the healthcare system, as Obama has proposed. Eleven percent are very confident of this.
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