Thursday, April 28, 2011

Poll: Obama Medicare “Reform” Deeply Unpopular

This month’s Kaiser health tracking poll was released this morning, and it reveals some interesting data on entitlement reform.  While the survey, like others in recent days, shows mixed reactions to the House Republican budget depending on how the issue is framed, the Kaiser poll also examined one of the President’s key entitlement reforms.  Specifically, the poll asked whether the public would support “setting a limit, or cap, on the amount of money the federal government spends on Medicare and other health care programs…as a way to reduce the federal deficit.”  A clear majority (55%) of the public OPPOSED such caps, with the number strongly opposing (31%) more than double the number strongly supporting (14%).  When told that caps could mean “that seniors, low-income people, and others covered by federal health programs would have to pay more for their health care in the future, and some may have to go without care,” the level of opposition to caps on federal health spending rose to 73%, with only 19% supporting.

Of course, the health care law ALREADY imposes caps on Medicare spending – and President Obama wants to lower those caps even further.  Moreover, those caps will be enforced by a board of unelected and unaccountable federal bureaucrats. (Unfortunately the poll didn’t mention the role of federal bureaucrats in enforcing the law’s caps on Medicare spending – meaning the 73% opposition could actually be an under-estimate.)  America’s entitlement system is in need of fundamental reform – but this morning’s poll reveals that the American people are little interested in measures that simply place arbitrary caps on spending, enforced by unaccountable bureaucrats.