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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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Voters think less government red tape and more competition are the best ways
to bring down health care costs.
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe greater free market
competition between insurance companies would do more to reduce health care
costs than more government regulation. A new Rasmussen Reports national
telephone survey finds that just 23% feel the more effective course would be
more government regulation. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Under current law, competition between health insurance companies is
restricted in many ways. The government has long provided a special
protection to the industry in the form of an exemption from anti-trust laws.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) believe that health insurance companies should
lose their special exemption while only 12% disagree and favor the status
quo. Another 20% are not sure.
Seventy-six percent (76%) see another avenue of increased competition in
allowing employers and individuals to buy insurance plans across state lines
. That, too, that is currently prohibited by law. Only 15% think things
should remain as they are now and that companies and individuals should only
be allowed to buy plans approved by their state.
These findings are essentially unchanged from October 2009 when Rasmussen
Reports first asked the questions as the congressional debate over a new
national health care law was in full swing.
Neither of these proposals – to allow insurance to be sold across state
lines or to put health insurers under anti-trust law – was incorporated
into the final health care bill approved by Congress in March 2010. In
surveys every week but one since then, most voters have called for repeal of
the health care law.
(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).
Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July
14-15, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3
percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all
Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See
methodology.
Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Republicans and 75% of voters not affiliated
with either major party have more confidence in free market competition
between insurance companies than in more government regulation to bring down
health care costs. Democrats, however, are almost evenly divided on this
question.
Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more enthusiastic than Democrats
about allowing health insurance plans to be sold across state borders.
But when it comes to removing the special exemption from anti-trust laws, 71
% of Democrats and 75% of unaffiliateds like the idea, compared to only 59%
of GOP voters.
The fact that some companies receive government protection from competition
is one reason that seven-out-of-ten Americans consistently believe that
government and big business work together against the rest of us.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of the Political Class think more government
regulation is the better way to reduce health care costs. Seventy-six
percent (76%) of Mainstream voters opt for more free market competition
instead.
Most voters expect health care costs to go up under the new law. They
remain closely divided over whether the law will force them to change their
existing health insurance coverage.
Voters have consistently for years expressed more confidence in a free
market economy over one controlled by the government. Last year at this time
, 69% of voters said when it comes to helping the economy and creating jobs,
more competition and less government regulation is better than increased
regulation and less competition. |
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