Poll: Only 28% Of Republicans Believe American Health Care Best In World
Others have already taken a crack at this new Pew poll on American attitudes towards our health care system. But I wanted to highlight the number bolded below — the percentage of Republicans who believe the GOP talking point that American health care is the best in the world:
According to Americans the United States does not have the best health care in the world. Most see our health care as average (32%) or below average (27%) when compared with health care in other industrialized countries. Only 15% support the often-used political talking point that America has the best health care in the world; 23% say it is above average. Republicans (28%) are far more likely than Democrats (9%) or independents (12%) to say American health care is the best in the world, and conservative Republicans are even more pro American health care (66% say it is the best in the world or above average).
It’s true that the number of Republicans who believe this is higher than the number of Dems or independents who believe it. Still, is it not striking that fewer than a third of Repubicans embraces one of the leading talking points employed by GOP leaders?
Steve Benen has collected examples of Republicans making this claim, including Senator Richard Shelby’s rather modest assertion that we have the “best health care system the world has ever known.”
Republicans don’t seem to believe this, however. They do say in sizable numbers that the American system is “above average.” But that isn’t saying much, given that the comparison being made is a global one. And, strikingly, 42% of Republicans think American health care is average or below average.
Meanwhile, independents really reject the claim of American health care superiority: A meager 12% believe it. When it comes to health care, reality trumps national pride pretty decisively.
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So the other 80% are lying.
No, really?
[Arianna Huffington has gone completely nuts - she is saying Biden should resign in opposition to Obama's position on Afghanistan. *sigh* When did she quit being smart?]
But killing health care reform, that’s a polticial winner for Republicans! Whether true or not (60 Dem Votes), most polls show that Republicans will take a majority of the blame if HCR doesn’t pass.
@Tena
Yeah, I saw that editorial. I thought it was supposed to be snark, but then I started reading and realized it’s either AMAZING snark or just moronic. Seriously, resign? What the hell is she thinking?
@Tena
Arianna has always been a dimwit. She just charms people with her accent.
“America has the *most expensive* health care in the world.”
If that was the republican talking point … (cue outrage against telling the truth about anything in 3… 2… 1…)
@Kelley
Really? I can’t stand her accent.
The only way our healthcare system is best is if you equate cost with quality. We lag in infant mortality, percentage of population covered, affordability, and life expectancy. How do those figures translate into “the best?”
We have a system that allows the rapacious insurance industry to do whatever it wants. Their only check is their insatiable greed. They want ALL of our money and they are prepared to drive our economy into the ditch in order to get it.
This is the best argument for a single payer system that I have heard yet.
“Arianna has always been a dimwit. She just charms people with her accent.”
I think you’re right, Kelley.
“They want ALL of our money and they are prepared to drive our economy into the ditch in order to get it.”
The problem with single payer in one fell swoop is that unfortunately, the insurance industry IS a significant part of the economy.
The insurance industry (sorry to bore everyone who’s heard this from me) invests the money we give them. The money is tied up all over – municipal bonds, government notes and T-bills, and on and on. It would collapse the world economy to try to take all that money out at once.
It can be done – in phases.
Plus, the insurance industry employs a lot of Americans and unemployment is high enough right now.
All those numbers prove the point that the insurance industry will not win this time. We all, even 72% of Republicans know someone sick without health care, or someone who died without health care, or someone afraid of losing their health care.
When 46,000 people die every year because of lack of insurance it’s pretty hard to believe we have the best health care in the world.
“All those numbers prove the point that the insurance industry will not win this time.”
Plus now they’ve pissed off the White House royally. I’m so glad.
I don’t think they are going to win this time.
totally unrelated, off topic and funny as hell…http://firedoglake.com/2009/10/14/how-many-of-gop-coms-republican-heroes-would-be-republicans-today/
“reality trumps national pride pretty decisively.”
Ohhh what a lovely thought. As John Lennon once said so famously..”Imagine”!
Imagine if we accepted reality on all issues. What if our exceptionalism didn’t necessarily mean we were the BEST AT EVERYTHING. What if we were confident enough to admit our mistakes…ohhhh wait we have a Prez now who can do just that…I almost forgot..McCain/Palin went down in flames…maybe just maybe…. “reality trumps national pride pretty decisively.”
The Taos P.O. is legendary in its badness and they live up to that legend but I think they just topped it. I have a box at the end of the road and my carrier turns around in my driveway every day after filling the box. When you get a package, you get a notice and you have to pick it up at the Carrier’s Annex, at the other end of town. Even though Taos rebuilt the main P.O. and they should do it there. And there’s nothing stopping my carrier from delivering my packages since he turns around in my drive.
I have package. I went down to the Carrier’s Annex yesterday. They’re working on the road and have it closed. Still I could get in to the P.O. parking lot from the other end of the road and did. The Carrier’s Annex didn’t say it was closed. But it was locked and they wouldn’t answer the phone or the door. I was there with a nurse trying to get a package for the doctor’s office she worked in. How in the hell can they just close the damn Carrier’s Annex and hold our packages hostage like that?
Because it’s Taos.
I’m off to try again.
OT, the Dow closed above 10,000
The major stock indexes have rebounded by 50 percent or more in a scorching rally that began in early March and galloped higher through the summer and early autumn, as the economy stabilized and once-bleeding companies began to report better profits and rising revenue.
That optimism got louder on Wednesday.
Investors rushed to take positions on companies and commodities that could benefit from a broad upturn in corporate profits and the global economy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/15markets.html
Obama’s destroying the economy! Oh noooezzz!!!1!!11!1
Arianna is a political Chamelon. I have never bought into her act. She married a wealthy Right Wing Republican, because she saw him as her ticket to becoming First Lady. He got elected to Congress, and he then ran for The US Senate, and Arianna was spouting the same Right Wing talking points that he was. He lost. so she divorced him. Soon after that he announced that he was g@y.
Arianna then decided that she was going to be an Independent candidate for Gov. of California. Recall how she embarressed herself by stepping in front of the Cameras, at an Arnold campaign stop.
She lost badly, so she had failed on the right wing, and as an Independent, so she suddenly morphed into being a Progressive.
She is just a opportunistic Political Chamelon, of if you prefer; A Political Windsock.
Just to address the argument about the ‘best health care in the world’, no one ever discusses the difference between having the best technology and procedures, and having the best access to good health care. We probably have the former, with all our research and teaching facilities, but many others are ahead of us with access to good health care resulting in a healthier population.
Do hypochondriacs seek medical treatment in every country in the world, in order to evaluate if we have the best health care?
Which brought an old Henny Youngman joke to mind:
A Doctor gave a sick man six months to live.
At the end of the six months, the patient had not paid his doctor bills; so the Doctor gave him another six months to live!
@ AF…” no one ever discusses the difference between having the best technology and procedures, and having the best access to good health care. We probably have the former, with all our research and teaching facilities, but many others are ahead of us with access to good health care resulting in a healthier population.”
EXACTLY!
@Ethan – yay on the market. Hope you got Ford at $1.67 like I did.
The poll tells me what various national groups THINK. But just who does have the best, highest quality healthcare?
just curious.
” But just who does have the best, highest quality healthcare?
just curious.”
I hear it’s France.
The quality of the care isn’t the big issue, it’s the outrageous cost.
Come on guys. What the poll really says is that most people believe that our health care system needs improvement. What you guys don’t choose to hear is what the argument is really about, that a lot of people do not want the kind of change that is being proposed.
Change for the better is always a good thing, but there seems to be a lot of objections to these particular changes.
Tena, no one is suggesting that the insurance companies would take all their invested money out at once. If they lost out on their premiums, I strongly suspect that they would leave their money invested just to live on their investments. And as you are aware, they would still have niche markets that the single payer doesn’t cover just like all the other countries with single payer.
AF makes a point that others have been trying to make. It follows that those who claim we have the best health care actually have access to that technology. The poor schmucks that DON’T have access are stuck, and that includes a lot more people than do have access. Unfortunately the schmucks have zero power to change things and the elites (those who think everything is just tickety-boo) are the ones in charge and they care diddley what the rest of us think.
we lead the world in all new heath care teck, precedurs, and new meds. that sounds like the best to me. we actually have the best infant mortality rate if you dont count premature births. other contries dont count premature births. we do and we have more of them because of fertilaty drugs that arnt avalable in other countries.
france is in the tank finacaly with health care, both cuba and germany are trying to move from universal heath care to private. why becase they couldnt afford it and there quality of care was going down despite higher rates year after year.