In new poll numbers collected over the past week, the New York Times is showing that 72% of respondents are in favor of a government-run health care plan. Even more shocking -- 50% of Republicans were in favor of this.
See the original article here -- NYT Poll on Government Health Care.
This would have been astounding to me a few years back, but after wrestling with health care costs at my last company, and then shopping for private health care while starting my new business over the past 6 months, I am not that surprised.
Because I left my prior employer at the end of the year, and had to make the Cobra Election decision before the stimulus package was signed, I was not eligible for the low cost Cobra option in time to take advantage of it. Instead, I had the dubious pleasure of shopping for personal health insurance. In the end, it didn't take that long to find coverage, but the coverage options were terrible, and the costs were/are very high. I settled on a low end plan with very limited prescription coverage, and still spend almost $500/month to cover myself and a child.
I would imagine that challenges like that are behind the poll results that CBS news and the NYT found. It wasn't that much better when purchasing insurance in a small business -- there is only so long that companies can absorb 8-15% annual premium increases before even diehrd libertarians are willing to accept a government progam.
It will be very interesting to see if other polls find similar responses, and if so, where the debate goes from here...
Stay tuned...
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