Another poll, and more confirmation that Americans
are confused about Obamcare.
“Never heard,” said Lenard Pringle, 54, a Greenbelt resident who said he was not aware of any changes coming to the health-care system. He did not know that in a few months, he will be eligible for Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor that is expanding under the law.
He is not alone. More than six in 10 Americans say they do not have the information necessary to understand the changes the law will bring, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
This isn't really news. The monthly tracking polls from Kaiser Family Foundation have been telling us this for months and months now. What's a big part of the problem? Well, a big part can be found in the first few questions of that poll: Do you approve or disapprove of President Obama's handling? Who do you trust more on it, Republicans or Obama? The focus in the traditional media, since the law was passed, has been on the political fight and who's winning the day, not on what the bill actually does. (Thanks,
Chuck Todd.) But the blame can also go to Democrats and to President Obama who pretty much refused to talk about the law at all until after the Supreme Court upheld it. The bully pulpit was empty for too long.
Greg Sargent, though, finds some good news in the polling: "among those who oppose Obamacare, only 30 percent say they understand it, while 69 percent say they don’t. But among those who support Obamacare, 45 percent understand it while 53 percent don’t. So it’s possible as knowledge of the law grows, so could approval."
This poll also echoes this week's Pew Poll, showing that it's a tiny sliver of political dead-enders (like the 27 percent who hung in with George W. Bush to the bitter end) who think that doing anything and everything to kill the law is a good idea. In this poll, it's only 27 percent who want the earth scorched and sown with salt. Twenty-seven percent of voters, and handful of assholes in Congress.
But those are the people in charge of House Speaker John Boehner, so this is what we're getting.
Stand with Daily Kos and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in denouncing Republicans who would completely shut down the government just to destroy Obamacare.