JANUARY 20, 2010

Americans are worried Congress will make a bad health-care system even worse

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By LAURA MECKLER

A year of intense debate over how to overhaul health care has left the country scared and confused, with many Americans frustrated by the current system—yet fearful Washington will replace it with something worse.

The portion of Americans saying the health plan nearing completion in Congress is a bad idea has climbed steadily through months of debate and negotiation. In April, 26% said the plan was a bad idea. By this month, it was 46%, as many of the undecided made up their minds, according to the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Just 33% now say it's a good idea, no different than nine months ago.

This, in turn, has hurt the overall standing of President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party—a point that played out in dramatic terms in a Massachusetts special election Tuesday, where Republican Scott Brown campaigned hard against the Obama health plan and vowed to become the swing vote Republicans need to stop it.
Rising Costs

The broader economic and political climate has complicated the job of selling a health package with nearly a trillion-dollar price tag over the next decade, the poll suggests. After an expensive economic-stimulus package, Wall Street rescue and bailout of two auto companies, Americans have become increasingly worried about the rising deficit and government intervention into the economy.

The poll found only 38% approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing on health care, lower than his overall approval rating and lower than his grades for the economy, foreign policy and the war on terrorism. People are even less happy with Republicans in Congress on this issue, with just 26% approving of the job they've done on health.

Leaders in both parties say that the health-care system, with its spiraling costs and rising number of uninsured, is broken. Republicans generally believe that the Obama plan has become unpopular because it costs too much and mandates too much government intervention. Democrats argue that the legislative process is, by nature, unsettling, and that the benefits of the plan will become clearer to voters if and when it becomes law. Both parties have staked their futures, certainly in the short term and possibly for years to come, on the outcome of this debate.

Given Americans' frustrations with the health-care system, a surprising number say they are willing to live with the status quo, rather than risk something that might be worse. Nearly half of those surveyed—48%—said passing the current legislation would be a "step backward," while just 42% called it a "step forward." And more than half—53%—said they are more concerned that lawmakers will go too far and make the system worse than they are concerned that political leaders won't do enough to make the system better.

"Health-care reform is very, very important. I just don't like the way they are going about it," says Mary Stevens, 67, a political independent from Mason City, Iowa, who voted for Mr. Obama.

A retired banker, she says she has seen otherwise creditworthy people financially ruined because of unpaid health-care bills. So, she'd like to see changes, and says she's willing to pay taxes to help others get coverage. But she thinks Mr. Obama ceded too much power to Democrats in Congress. "I wish they would take more time," she says, but adds: "I give [Mr. Obama] credit. If he had not pushed as hard as he did, nothing would have happened."

A Clear Understanding

It's not that Americans don't understand what the legislation aims to do. Two-thirds think the legislation would succeed in helping people with pre-existing conditions get coverage, and in covering the uninsured—two key aims. But cost is a big fear, with majorities predicting that both the deficit and taxes on the middle class would get worse as a result of the legislation—despite projections that the plan would pay for itself by slowing the growth of costs and raising taxes on upper-income families and health industries. Just under half said the legislation would make health costs worse, compared with 33% who said costs would improve.



—Ms. Meckler is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau. She can be reached at laura.meckler@wsj.com.

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